Dear Grandparenting: My granddaughter, Hannah, is a world-beater. Honor roll, plays two sports, volunteers for environmental projects, school choir, yearbook committee, and Hannah still talks about wanting to become a doctor. And nobody has ever heard my granddaughter utter a single word of profanity. In other words, she has really done her grandmother proud.

Then she started bringing this guy around who shall remain nameless. He came across like one of those strong, silent types, but I saw right through him. He dumped her out of his car eight blocks from home because she wouldn’t cooperate sexually. I thought that would cure her. Next thing anybody knows, Hannah is hanging around with another guy that no grandmother would ever approve of. He’s like the one before, only much more ratty looking. What’s going on? Why in the world would such a great girl like my Hannah decide to date losers like that? Lucy Lou, The Villages, Florida

Dear Lucy Lou: Another otherwise sensible female falls under the spell of a Neanderthal knucklehead. Who can explain this crazy love, this attraction to bad boys?

Remember that recent wave of vampire books and movies that sent young females into such a feeding frenzy? Vampires are bad boys on steroids, the ultimate forbidden fruit. Good girls take a bite or two for all kinds of reasons, one of which almost certainly applies to your granddaughter.

Maybe they’re ready to try a walk on the wild side after years on the straight and narrow. Maybe they think their love can tame the handsome devil, or at least begin to reform him. Maybe they’re attracted to the mystery, or the challenge and thrill of the chase. Maybe it’s better to be with someone — anyone — than to be alone. Or maybe she’s confusing acting tough with someone strong and protective, as if it’s good to be bad.

It’s easy to get worked up by the prospect of your granddaughter’s falling under the spell of a ne’er-do-well. So try to think of this as a detour, a phase your granddaughter is going through. These crazy love relationships typically burn out when bad boys reveal themselves for what they really are. That leaves plenty of time for your granddaughter to latch on to a Prince Charming.

GRAND REMARK OF THE WEEK

“Old Ollie” from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, was “cracking up” listening to his grandkids talk about love and marriage. One of them said, “Two people have to really, really get along. Like when one of the people has freckles, he goes and finds a girl with freckles too.”