Hi S-talkers! It's been a bit. I hit a point today where I was about to lose my mind. To recap the past year- my BF and I bought a house (in my name only, don't worry), got engaged, and have been counting down the days until skid freedom. Ok that's probably just me, but still. SD is now 11 and still a great kid, and SS is now 14 and just started a job at a well-known fast-food restaurant in town. My FH and I were both 100% on the same page of him getting a job when he was 14- we both worked even younger than that, SS has no activities at night except Basketball when school is in, and since Covid, these kids literally do NOTHING except play video games and watch Netflix. They don't go outside. My FH will tell SD to go for a bike ride or something, but for some reason SS does not get those same prompts, so he literally will go a week without leaving the house. It's insane. Every bone in my body wants to scream at them to get out of the house and go for a bike ride, play in the yard, do SOMETHING, but they aren't my kids so I remain silent. But I digress.  

Anyway, this is what led to my insanity today. FH's ex, Crazy, has been relatively quiet since we added a communication stipulation to the CO in Nov that says there is to be no speaking negatively of the other parent to SK's, or to the other parent on OFW, and all communication must be professional and limited to emergencies or a list of 3 communication topics. It's pretty strict, and we had it written that any violation could result in contempt of court. Her dumb ass finally listened, ish, because she has been quiet and professional for the most part. Anyway, I don't want this psycho at my house unless it's absolutely necessary. My FH and I have talked about this numerous times. He agrees, and we try to limit uneccessary "drop offs" of things SK's have forgotten. Well, SS14...I repeat, he's 14, works tomorrow, and his work is approx. 1.2 miles from our house. We live in a small town with no violent crime, it's a sunny 78 degrees today, and my FH said to me last night, "Oh sh*t, SS works at 11am tomorrow, and you won't be home to take him, so that means I'll have to get up early to take him". My FH works 3rd shift, and usually sleeps until 11:30am after work. I said, no, he can walk or ride his bike, at the same time SD said, Why can't he ride his bike? She went on to say she rides her bike to the dollar store all the time, which is 1 minute away from SS's job. She's like, he's perfectly capable. At this point I actually clapped and high-fived her, because, Preach!! My FH said, yeah he can just ride his bike. I mean, seriously. It is a 6 minute bike ride. I heard him tell SS that he was riding his bike, heard SS complain, heard my FH say that he wasn't going to get up early to take him and that he could ride his bike, heard SS whine "Come on!", and that was the end. So today- we are having concrete poured on both sides of our garage, so I text SS and tell him which door to use to get his bike out. He responds that his mom is giving him a ride to work today. Come again? I said, You can ride your bike and she is not supposed to be here on our days. He said  "dad said it was ok". I kind of blacked out at this point, but I remember saying, I just don't understand, you can ride your bike 6 minutes, but whatever. have a good day. Then I text FH and asked if he knew Crazy was giving SS a ride. He said yes. I responded, but we talked about not wanting her at our house except for when absolutely necessary....  He said, we talked about not having her drop off things that weren't necessary. I said, you know I do not want her there, period. We have talked about this many times. He can ride his bike 6 mins.  

I mean. Is this a joke? Is this where we are at now? 14yr olds can't ride their bikes 1.2 miles on a beautiful day, and we let people that we have worked reallllly hard to keep away from our house just suddenly come there to pick him up so he doesn't have to *gasps in horror* ride his bike 6 Freaking mins???  My response made it very clear that A) She is not to be at our house unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, and sure, if it's a blizzard and we can't get SS there, she can give him a ride. But this blatantly throwing my wishes out the window just to coddle SS is NOT going to fly. I told him she has wreaked havok on our lives, and my home should be a safe place where I don't have to worry about her turning up every other day. I said, he's 14, he can and will be riding his bike so he might as well get used to it. I got a "thumbs up" to that, which meant he was mad and defensive but trying not to be a d*ck, so I took that as a win. But this guilt of his, that he can't make SS ride his bike because he "doesn't want to", and expecting me to drive a 14yr old 1.2 miles during my workday instead of him riding his bike....unreal. I just do not understand. 

Side note, although Crazy has been mostly quiet, We did find a text on SD and SS's phone saying "You poor kids, your dad is never home, I feel so bad for you". He is actually home just as much, if not more than most parents, so that is complete brainwashing BS. Also, she called SD one morning and told SD that SD is the reason she can't keep a BF. Apparently the night before SD was talking to Crazy on speakerphone, and Crazy had "company" over. SD made a joke, and Crazy didn't like it and then accused SD of being the reason her relationships failed. SD confided in me, even though she's been locked down on any details about Crazy for the past year....but she was pretty upset. I told SD she can always talk to me and I won't bash her mom, she can just talk and vent. I just can't with this b*tch. Who says that to their kid??  

Rant over.