Rodney is fabulous as the most sarcastic, but actually pretty great, uncle.

Thanks! I think it probably takes a strong dose of the Sheppard genes to create kids who understand Rodney's version of tough love, but happily Nora and PJ fit the description.

I think you do a great job of showing John (and Rodney, and Dave, in small bits) as a good parent who still makes mistakes and could do better. Most parents aren't terrible or perfect; they're somewhere in between.

Glad to hear you liked this aspect. It was very tempting to paint Dave as a bit of a villain (and I think Rodney, and to a lesser extent, PJ probably both think of Dave as a pretty crappy parent) but John's viewpoint came through without my intending it, and I began to concede that perhaps Dave wasn't all bad even if he was a bit of an absentee father a lot of the time.

Thanks for the feedback! Happy to hear you enjoyed the story.