So Mic actually got a hold of SS on 2nd or 3rd try this afternoon. He and Ms. Perfect were on their way to Toys R Us to get a birthday present. Turns out the party is for his friend's little sister, who apparently loves carebears, and what else could it be, but a sleepover. I think this kid has gone about 2 nights without a sleepover since Easter Break started. I mean, I understand that at 8, friends become more important, learning to socialize, yada, yada, yada, but this is ridiculous. Ms. P. gets all this extra vacation time with him, and all she does is drag him out shopping for a day, then she ships him off again. Then everyone is upset when we don't want to give our measly 4 days a month up to running to birthdays and sleepovers (and can I just say that I have never seen a kid invited to more parties in my life-I'd say an average of $15 or $20 a week out of child support must go towards providing for the birthday boys and girls? I mean, it's bad enough to buy presents for all of his friends throughout the course of the year, but now his friends' siblings? I'm reasonably sure this friend didn't buy a present for baby Cash Cow this year. This is because his parents actually work for their money, and don't see the need to buy presents for other peoples' kids all the time).

Got off on a bit of a tangent there...

So anyway, the conversation apparently continued as SS went into the store. As it was about to conclude Mic told SS that he misses him. SS's response was umhum...like very non-chalant, the sort of thing you would say if you weren't really paying attention to someone. Then he went to look at something away from where his mom was shopping and told Mic that he misses him, too. How completely mind-blowing can it be to come to the realization that he can't even say that he misses his dad in front of Ms. P.? Mic didn't really want to talk about it much tonight. I can't blame him, I didn't really feel the need to discuss either. What's there to discuss? This kid is obviously being emotionally abused, at the very least. And there's nothing we can do about it.