Huh, maybe bob didn’t cut off the internet because he think chris still has a mostly positive reception and he probably thinks this is the most chris could’ve achieved in life. He also loves that it keeps chris occupied. He doesn’t wanna rain on chris’ parade unaware there were only bullying?
Borb act like chris is way more exceptional than he is and raised him like a pet or sth. It’s like a pet monkey for them, especially bob who already had successful grown up children and barb has no feelings. They don’t need to prove themselves to be “successful” parents coz they are already have raised kids that hold pretty ok jobs. Not talking about cole but even cole is doing ~well~ for rural Virginia standards. Dunno cole’s financhu situation now but I mean he was at least getting paid to write pretentious reviews well enough to afford living in nyc. Isn’t one or even two of Bobs kids doctor or sth? When they had chris I bet they just think he’s gonna be absolutely useless and won’t achieve anything like his siblings so as long as he’s doing well enough for a 8 yo he’s golden. He’s just there to be this eternal kid Peter Pan thingy to entertain and distract them. They are pretty heartless people regardless, bob is only ok in comparison to barb. Like, some of the few heart warming shit he mentions in the letters doesn’t prove much at all. The fact that he could abandon his whole family for barb, cutting them off completely, shows already he’s someone that doesn’t feel a lot. He’s perfect for barb tbh.