So the other day I get a text from BM’s husband saying “Do you have plans this Weekend? We have a meeting and I was wondering if you could watch MONSTER (that’s BM and his baby – she’s a 1.5 y/o nightmare!) We can always skip the meeting but we could really use your help.”

Hummmmm….let me think……no thanks!

Now I should explain…DH, myself, BM, her hubby, BM’s oldest dad and his wife are all very civil with one each other. We all keep it peaceful for the sake of the kids involved. But unlike the other SM I am not friends, nor do I pretend to be friends with BM. I am always kind, but never have any kind of interaction with her outside of SS’s activities (THANKS TO ALL OF YOU – you taught me that I do not need to be her friend just to be peaceful – but based on what I’m saying below, I still have much to learn).

I have watched MONSTER before (before she was a monster anyways). So it’s not out of the ordinary for them to ask, and before she became a nightmare I didn’t mind watching her. But ever since she turned one, she’s horrible to have over. She bites…if you tell her no she’ll slap you…in the face if she’s close enough and she just doesn’t listen…and I don’t care to deal with that anymore, she’s not my child OR DH’s.

So it’s not the fact that they asked that I find it annoying/amusing. It was his response when I said no. We have plans that entire weekend. So I told him I couldn’t and explained we had tickets to a hockey game and plans with my parents and then offered to ask our sitter if she was available to help them out. His response was…..

“We don’t really have the money to get a sitter that’s why we asked you [[RUDE – clearly I need to start charging]], but I looked up the rules for the tickets and she’s young enough to sit on your lap and not need a ticket, so you could take her with you.”

SAY WHAT!!!! First of all implying that I’m essentially “cheap help” not the best way to get me to change my mind. Second of all, NO! I told him that I didn’t want the responsibility of watching a small child at a very busy arena….but he kept trying to convince me/guilt me into it (but she really likes you – we really shouldn’t miss this meeting, etc). DH finally got annoyed and called BM and told her the final answer was no and that her hubby needed to stop texting and that we won’t be watching MONSTER for them anymore if this is how things are going to go when we say no. of course that pissed of BM but whatever!

Usually when these little tiff’s happen, BM tells SS about it and he confronts us or is mad depending on the situation. The typical little games she plays. So when I got home from work yesterday SS came up to me and said (now he’s 7, but he talks like he’s 40 – cracks me up) --Venus, I need to speak to about something, let’s go in the living room and have a seat. My mom told me that you refused to watch MONSTER because you don’t like her. Now I realize that’s not true and my mom was just saying that because she was mad. I wanted to tell you what I said to my mom about this situation so that you're not caught off guard if she says something to you. I told her that MONSTER is not your responsibility and that it’s not fair to get mad at you for not wanting to take care of her. I also suggested that next time she offer to pay you because good help doesn’t come for free-- LOL!!! I just love him, he is his father’s child!