The kids are off school today and I work from home. BS16 is off with his friends and SS13 has his best friend over playing video games. I made cookies for them and there are brownies that I made earlier in the week. I heard SS BF tell him as they ran up stairs with hot cookies, that this house is so much better because there are always cookies....

Background: This same kid told us a couple of weeks ago that he won't even go to BM's anymore when SS is there because there is no food and she doesn't worry about dinner until 10:30 at night. Yet she is MOTY and I don't show her kids any love...

It takes no time for me in between phone calls to bake some cookies from a mix. I do it for SS every week and the brownies for my son every week.

Last night SS told me that his mom asked him last month if she could take Karate class with him now. He told her no, he had no interest in doing it with her. I love how he mentions these things out of the blue...DH was out at the last minute and I had taken him to karate. (About three months ago I started re-engaging after the last year and a half of leaving all parenting to DH, minus cooking and laundry).

SS always seems to tell me these things in the car, when I can't see his face. I told him it was his right to not have her do it with him. It was his thing and he enjoyed it, so I see nothing wrong in telling your mom no. He said she just doesn't get it. I told him hopefully someday, she will see it. But, until she does, your relationship will never be good. He talked about all the things she did the last year, mentioning specifics. He said how can she not know why I don't want to be around her? Told him, just be honest with her and maybe someday she will come around. He doubted it. I said all I know is you seem happier lately since everything is done. He said yeah. I told him I was really proud of his grades. No C's...Even bet him that next quarter I bet he had more A's than B's. He said he knew he could. How cool is that???

So last night when we got home, he hung in my room talking about the field day that I volunteered at that day for his class. He was so interested in what I was thinking about doing for the next one that I volunteered to coordinate. Told him my job was to start thinking of games. So he had lots of ideas. This could be fun to do with him. I think he liked the idea of doing this. For a kid with Social issues, this could be good for him with his classmates. It was just nice to hang out. BS16 was sleeping and DH was still out. As frustrating as this kid with all his quirks, when he is talkative, he is a nice kid.

So for the SM's out there frustrated. It does seem to be worth it sometimes. As for SD15, I am happy to have her out of our life. Sounds terrible, but at least her piercing, blonde hair and need to have a new boyfriend all the time is not being exposed to the boys...I will be so grateful when July comes and BM's visitation stops...