EMAIL DETAILS

Thank you Kathleen for sharing this. Based upon what I experienced, I do think it is key that we all enforce no tolerance, because if there is a will there is a way. I was home one time one of my kids had a party... and I literally went downstairs multiple times and even made the kids leave knapsacks upstairs.. They snuck it out back and were drinking outside...

From: Kathleen Biden [mailto:kathleenbiden@mac.com]
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2014 11:07 AM
To: Gina Green; Liza Gilbert; Hattie Ruttenberg; Meg Flax; Mary T. O'Dea; Markowitz, Nancy
Cc: Hunter Biden
Subject: June 6th recap

Friends,

I wanted to let you know what happened at our house a few weeks ago. Hunter and I went to Paris June 6-10 and had Naomi, our 20 year old, come down from Philadelphia to stay with Finnegan and Maisy. On Friday night, Finnegan had your kids over to the house. Kids were hanging out downstairs. When Naomi went down to check on them, she found alcohol. I told Finnegan that we assume all of the kids were drinking. Naomi took the alcohol away. Naomi said the boys were picked up around 11 and all of the girls slept over.

And so it begins... I thought freshman year was great for our kids. I think they have a really nice group of friends. High school isn't easy and I know there are more temptations ahead of them. I think it will help them to have firm guidelines for how we handle their parties, sleepovers, social etc.

Please, always give me a call, text, email if your kids are coming my way. I LOVE having the kids over and want them to feel comfortable coming to our house. I also want them to know that we all agree on 1. no tolerance for drinking and 2. they cannot be at someone's house without parent's approval.

I know kids experimenting with drinking shouldn't be a shock but it definitely rocked me. Finnegan knows she is going to have to earn back our trust. We spoke to her about the tough choices ahead and know she learned from the experience.

Let me know if you want to talk further. Luckily we have summer break to give everyone time to re-energize.

We have really great kids and I know they are strong enough and smart enough to handle the tough situations. Parenting is so hard!

Sorry for the email. Hope you all have a great summer.

Fondly,

Kathlee