They never actually gave a reason why, but my best guess is that we were supposed to think that Lulu had come on too strong with Charlotte and frightened her and Charlotte needed time to adjust or some such thing. Of course, Valentin made it a point to pick Charlotte up from Lulu's personally and before the hour was up and naturally Charlotte wanted to go with him.

I don't remember exactly back then. Why did Lulu only have supervised visitation? Just because of Valentin's power and money? Geez... my dad had supervised visitation with me and my sister as kids, but that was because of abuse. That's kind of ridiculous that Lulu had to be supervised. Geez... this makes me feel really bad for her.

Chrissyfan, I will join you on that soapbox if you don't mind! :)

Yes, Valentin came to town acting that way. He clearly was never going to tell Lulu about Charlotte until he was forced to (she/Maxie did investigating on their own) and, by his own dialogue, the only reason he ever offered her joint custody in the very beginning was because he knew she would turn it down in her quest for full. The farce of a custody trial (two/three years ago) at first gave Valentin full custody and Lulu one hour a week court-ordered supervised visitation, and Valentin admitted he wanted that to fail and did everything to undermine Lulu's time with Charlotte. He already does have new passports for them because he has tried to flee the country with the girl at least five times. He and Nina alienated Charlotte from Lulu so it's no wonder that Charlotte doesn't seem to like her.

I'm not sure of the show reason why Lulu can't carry her own child but they had the perfect opportunity when Emme was pregnant.

Christina- you make a very valid point of which I didn't think of. While Nina probably makes it worse, Valentin certainly has a huge chip on his shoulder and contempt for the woman whose embryo he helped himself to. I wasn't watching, did he come to town already with the chip on his shoulder?

I'd say that Lulu should continue on with her petition for sole custody but even if Valentin should somehow lose the right to visitation, Charlotte is a very conniving little girl not only would she disrespect Lulu but she would find a way to get to Valentin and yes, they could leave the country at the drop of a hat. He got new papers for Nelle and Wiley, he could get new papers for himself and Charlotte.

Either way, yeah, Lulu can never fully trust that if she doesn't say or do everything Charlotte wishes, she will run to her papa.

Honestly now that I am thinking on it. If every soap woman can be told her can carry her own child for what ever reasons get to carry their own child eventually, why can't Lulu get that experience?

Ha I've found a new soapbox subject free Lulu from Valentin.

chrissyfan - Nina chirping in Valentin's ear isn't the only problem re: Lulu/Valentin co-parenting. Now, this is just my opinion, but I don't think they will ever be able to co-parent successfully. Lulu won't ever trust Valentin when it comes to Charlotte (rightfully, he's proven even recently that his first instinct is to flee the country with Charlotte any time his back is to the wall) and Valentin might talk a good game these days but he never has and still doesn't respect Lulu as Charlotte's mother.

Chrissy/Christina- thank you for the explanations they make sense. Honestly, I thought Laura had a better B.S. meter than that. Although, I do wonder if Lulu and Valentin could co-parent better without Nina chirping in his ear. Isn't Nina sniffing around Jax now or did she make her point and now she is back on the Valentin train?

I love Emme Rylan- she was my favorite adult Lizzie on GL and while I do like the current Abbie on Y&R, Emme was my favorite and what I have watched of her she is my favorite Lulu. Lulu was an absolute terror but you are correct Chrissy, her maturing came at a nice steady pace, not quick whitewash and nobody else got crushed to do so. She is a Spencer, so she is always going to have moments but I think as a true adult, she is more channeling Laura's DNA then Luke's.

Yeah, no wonder Charlotte is having trouble distinguishing right from wrong. She thinks Papa hung the moon, so it's okay to push people off a paraphet, or in Charlotte's case let a snake free at a birthday party, as long as no one dies. I do agree, it's annoying how much Charlotte worships Papa and Nina, meanwhile she only likes Lulu if she's nice to them.
Also, back to Lulu, while I missed the transition between actresses, from my understanding they didn't ruin other characters to redeem her. I mean, they brought on Valerie to cause trouble between her and Dante, but they didn't ruin established characters. IMO the best character development is like that, when you don't have to destroy good characters to make another one look good. It's like she grew out of being a Spencer and started to emulate her mom instead. Kind of makes sense, since Lulu and Laura were separated for so long. So yes, I think it's time I forgive Lulu for what she was like as a teenager lol. She's grown into a good mother, where as Sam has done the opposite. She went from being a good mother to acting like a teenager at almost 40 years old.

Chrissyfan and Jrchandlerfan - Laura was on board with pushing Lulu to at least hear Valentin out because Valentin had talked to Laura and told her that if Lulu chose to still go forward with her petition for sole custody he wouldn't fight her. This is after Valentin had a conversation with Charlotte in which Charlotte told him that she had seen him push Ava off the paraphet, but it was all okay because Ava didn't die, and she blamed Ava, Nikolas, Sasha, and even Mommy for them/her losing Wyndemere/Nina. Yet the next day Valentin agreed with Nina that walking away from Charlotte wasn't the answer, which basically proves to me that Valentin was manipulating Laura to get to Lulu. How disappointing that Laura fell for it.

Chrissyfan, I know what you mean. I watch everyday and don’t pay attention to some things so I can’t relay every detail lol.
I think Laura is on board because she thinks Valentin is sincerely trying to do what’s best for Charlotte. Something like that.
Charlotte cut up Sasha’s picture some time after the truth came out that Sasha isn’t Nina’s daughter. She was mad at her.
Uh oh, I forgot for a millisecond about past Lulu. I couldn’t stand her until the new actress. I hate how she schemed to break up Dillon and Georgie, then had an abortion when Dillon wanted to keep the baby. Charlotte is a little young, but I’m surprised they didn’t make her Dillon and Lulu’s baby that was aborted. That said I think Lulu’s character has come a long way.

I can't chime in much because I haven't watched recently, only the episode after the snake, it must have surrounded Jason and Sam at their safehouse. Sad state of GH to recall you watched an episode but don't recall what happened. Anyhow, you both already know I'm not keen on Charlotte or Valentin or Nina. While I place a lot of blame on Valentin and Nina for giving Charlotte a huge sense of entitlement, I recall Lulu as a late teen early twenty something was petulant like Charlotte and channeled her Spencer DNA in the I want what I want and I want it now and you can't stop me. She had Spinelli, Dillon and Milo chasing her like love struck puppies keeping them on a string while she chased Johnny Zacharra. It took some time but she started to grow up when she met Dante.

I missed it so I have to ask, whey is Laura pushing Lulu to go back to shared custody? Of course that is usually what is ideal for a child but this is Valentin and yeah, if he chooses to there is no court order in the world that could keep him for putting Charlotte and himself on a plane away from Lulu. I can't envision Laura giving Valentin the time of day on that.

Charlotte is a very intelligent little girl frankly I wonder if she enjoys keeping her parents unsettled. Her early life was definitely very unsettled and I would like to say part of her is scared the parental front will somehow change again so to keep her guard up she keeps them on a string. I'd like to see Lulu stick to her guns and win and after Valentin is humbled a bit then maybe shared custody.

Why did she rip up a picture of Sasha? Jealousy?

I feel you. It would have been nice if Lulu continued to fight for Charlotte. But I don't think Lulu knows about the snake or her cutting up Sasha's picture, unless I missed it. She knows about the bullying, but that Charlotte apologized to Aiden and has stopped since. So, I don't think she's aware that Charlotte is starting to go crazy because of Valentin and Nina's parenting. I am trying to see it from Charlotte's POV though. Every other day she was told she had a different mother and father (reminds me of Danny in my story lol). First she knew Claudette as her mother, and she was told that Griffin was her father. Then she was told Nathan was her father (correct me if I'm wrong on the order). Then she was told Valentin was her father. So, she adjusted to Valentin being her father and Nina her stepmom. Then, she was told Lulu was her mother and she didn't accept it at first. Slowly she let Lulu in and accepted her. But what Valentin and Nina have taught her is that she is the most important person in the room and that they give her anything that she wants. Lulu doesn't do that, she corrected her on the bullying, etc and Charlotte always seems to over hear her talking negative about Valentin, which is understandable. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I think Charlotte has to learn somehow that Lulu is the better parent. Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

I have to speak up about today's GH. I wish Lulu didn't care about and fight for Charlotte as much as she did, to be honest. The way Charlotte is written it's not believable to me that she even likes Lulu, much less loves her as her mother, and Charlotte is always going to side with Valentin and even Nina. If the entire point of the Lulu/Valentin/Laura/Charlotte plot was for Lulu to acquiesce to Valentin to a shared custody plan, I give up. Charlotte learned nothing except she can run away from Lulu anytime she hears something she doesn't like and she will get her way thanks to her papa. Charlotte's first reaction was to beg Valentin to take her away with him and they could be together and no one could stop them. Because she learned from Valentin that running away is something they do and there are no consequences. Now that there is "shared custody", Lulu is going to be afraid weekly that Valentin will run off with her daughter and leave the state/country anytime she (Lulu) looks at him wrong or Valentin commits a crime. Based on the dialogue today that is something that still rightly bothers her. What does Lulu get? A lifetime of playing catch-up and doing her best to parent a child that doesn't respect her or barely likes her, all the while being undermined by Valentin?

Good for Danny for telling Drew not to be mad at Willow. That shows progress :)

The most interesting part about this chapter for me is that Drew clearly has unresolved feelings about Sam and Jason...

Thanks Chrissyfan! When Drew and Danny had that (one-sided) fight a few chapters ago, Danny said that he'd never seen Drew burst before and that he never had therapy for everything he he went through. Well, he just saw him burst lol. But I think it's understandable where Drew is coming from. I'm not trying to make him the bad guy at all. He really thought Scout was dead, and he was angry because he feels like Danny is following in Sam's footsteps (which he kind of is. He's very much like his mother lol). But to Danny's defense, he is a teenager whereas Sam was a 40-year old mother acting like a teenager (still has been on the show). Drew just doesn't want to see him go down that path. Anyway, Drew will feel bad but Danny still needs to learn. I think Danny is more like the old Sam than Willow or Scout, at least at this point.

Geeze Chrissy, I made it halfway through the chapter and thought I would end up stomping my feet demanding you fix it. You sort of had me less confident that Scout would be okay. Thankfully she is. I think Drew gets to be upset but I'm glad Monica stopped him before he said much more. I doubt that either Danny or Angelica thought about what would happen if Angelica was caught or followed, they were thinking like love struck teens. Sounds like Drew could use some therapy too, he clearly loves Sam but he has some hurt feelings there still. Really good chapter.