I have mostly disengaged on the parenting stuff with SS12, but on Tuesday I did take him to Karate, since DH had taken my son to a BB game. Well SS got a stripe on his belt and was very proud of himself. He comments to me, can you imagine how good I could have done if I had gone last week. He is supposed to go every T and R. We pay for this. BM agrees to take him or we are just out the money...

My son gets his license next week. He has a car already courtesy of grandpa for completing his Eagle Project. Our insurance is going to go up about $30 a month. Not a big deal and we do have completely separate finances. DH pays this one and I pay for all the cell phones. It evens out. So it is not about the money. But, here is the question... He said that when BS16 goes to college we are not paying for his insurance. I said we will and we will pay for it until he is out of school. Rates are very high for boys and I think that is my responsibility.

With SD 14 gone and living with BM and the modification almost signed and settled, I can look back and see where everything went wrong.

I know that we SM's have problems with Boys and Girls alike. But, it really feels like the girls give us so many problems. The pattern seems to happen in their tweens. It started for us at 13. It blew up when she turned 14 and she had it in her head that now she had rights and a judge would listen to her. She emphatically said this over and over again and then SD14 had us served.

Well DH went to court this morning and she found out that he owes her nothing. Her lawyer and the mediators enlightened her that she had owed him for years and when the oldest child turns 18 she will owe DH a lot of money in CS if he were to go for it. Rather than do that she agreed to accept nothing. Some minor changes to the CO. They agreed to get rid of the original custody of 2weeks on and 2 off and put it at the one week on one week off the way they have been doing it. The Right of Refusal is taken out. She never followed the two hour rule anyway.