I was having a good morning this morning until I came downstairs and saw that DH had piled the skids' baseball crap by the front door. Bats, shoes, helmets, bags, etc. My stomach dropped, and all I could think was "Damn it! NO!"

I knew it was coming. His three kids play coach-pitch ball every spring. One of them HATES it. All he does is bitch and moan and stand there all slumped over on the field, refusing to do anything. He despises any kind of outdoor activity that might involve having to actually move around. Give him a video game and he's happy as a lark. Make him go outside and he's a nasty little shit.

So I'll have many weekends taken over by baseball. Practices, games, etc. And they're all three on different teams because of their ages, so there'll be three separate rounds of this shit going on every weekend, and lots of weeknights for the next two months. Oh! And as a bonus, of course BM will be at every single practice and game with whatever boyfriend she's latched on to at the moment, screaming like a banshee from the bleachers and embarrassing the hell out of DH and me. Everybody stares at her, but she doesn't care. She REALLY gets into it, to the point where sometimes she's hoarse by the time she leaves, and that's at practices AND games. It's so humiliating. Normally DH and I find an excuse to go stand someplace else, away from her.

Neither of my kids has expressed any interest in participating. My 9-year-old is more into running track and playing soccer, though he hasn't been on a team for either of those things yet. He said he might want to do it next year, but I'm not going to force him to do it. DH thinks I should force him because "Come on! It'll be FUN!"

Yeah, about as much fun as watching SS7 stand there pouting on the field, refusing to do ANYTHING the entire season. SS7 has begged DH and BM to not make him play this year, but they're going to make him do it anyway. I don't know what they think will come of it. He obviously hates it. More often than not, he'll cry - literally CRY - until BM and DH give in and let him sit in the bleachers with them and not play.

Lately he's started refusing to go outside at all. He'll sit in BM's station wagon and scream and cry, and eventually BM caves and lets him stay in the car while his brothers play at the park.

BM and DH worry about "upsetting" SS7. They hate to see him "all torn up like that," so he when he has these fits, he gets what he wants.

How this is going to work with them deciding that, yes, he WILL play ball this spring...I'm not sure. It's NOT going to be pretty though, and I'll be expected to be there to watch him have his gargantuan meltdowns at every practice and game until he convinces them to either let him sit on the bleachers with BM or stay in BM's car with the windows down the entire time.

I HATE ball. The whole scene is just awkward, having to chit-chat with BM and whatever trashy boyfriend-of-the-week she brings along to the games and practices. I'm sorry, I just see it as a MASSIVE waste of my time. I have much better things to do. And my two boys have to sit there the whole time, too. Either that or pay a babysitter to keep them, which I'm not about to do, so all three of us end up being bored out of our minds while the snowflakes flail around on the field like idiots and "play" ball, and SS7 cries and pitches fits so loud that everybody can hear him.

It's just...UGH. Seeing all that ball stuff piled by the front door just made me want to puke!