I will try not to ramble. -rant- So, history, Dad and I have been living together, in MY house, since 2007, and he got custody of the kids at the end of 2008. Bitter divorce. We have talked about marriage but he was going to school and financially it wasn't the best for us to combine households yet. He graduated last May from college and has gotten a job. Problem with the job is its evenings. So the kids are here with me at night. I am starting to get bitter since he is still stalling on marriage. I do have to say though that he is starting to talk about it.

He has a boy 11 and a girl 10. I get along just fine with the girl but I just can't stand the boy. I feel so bad about it, I hate to even type it, but there it is. It has been that way just about from day one. He acts like a baby. His mom babies him. His mom remarried and now has two very small children. The boy has a love of young children and "likes to make them laugh and be happy" his words. I find that odd.

Here, I require respect from him. We require obedience. We require chores and responsibility. So my correcting his disrespect now is (and his mom must have come up with this because I have never heard him use this word before) is "giving him sass" and I just want to scream. If HE didn't give me sass things would not be so stressful. Dad also feels boy is being sassy and disrespectful. Dad is not, how do you say, strong, so most of the time things are left to me to be the strong one. It is up to me to be the calendar coordinator (either that or I just never know what in the world is going on) and all, but I have learned one very important thing that I have been using quite successfully the past many months..... "go ask your Dad" is really starting to reduce MY stress.

Have you ever talked with someone and just the way they talk to you just rubs you the wrong way?

The boy is having trouble in school, nothing out of the ordinary really, just your usual 11 year old 5th grade boy forgetting homework and getting c's. Mom is freaking, saying its our "horrible environment" here and that the boy just feels so horrible when he is here. I don't see it, most of the time he seems fine and has fun playing with his sister. Sure he gets reprimanded here, and pretty much has lost a lot of privileges because of the bad school work. So he is not happy go lucky all the time. Mom lets him play video games to all hours of the night when he is over there. He hasn't played video games here for months because of his behavior. Mom wants the boy to live with her and "try it" for 6 months of him living there to see if that helps his schoolwork and makes him happier. Of course he will be happier, who wouldn't be getting to play all the time and have no responsibilities?

Sorry I just went all over the world with that but wanted to get it all off my chest. I hate dealing with his ex and his son but love him so am in such a conundrum. -end rant-