Play Ball

I've decided to be a hardass.

I may have gone the other route, but for the events of last night and this morning.

You see, db (who is, by the way, still 2 months behind on child support payments) is planning to take Bob on a little vacation in St. Louis next week. I've known about this for a while. In early April, we hashed out the details. db gets a 4-day period of vacation for each of the summer months, not to coincide with but may include his scheduled weekend. So he asked for Thursday through Sunday of his first scheduled weekend in June. I agreed, and went so far as to offer up the additional Wednesday overnight, considering Bob would be with him from 4-8pm anyway, and it seemed ludicrous to make the kid come home, go to bed, and drop him off again first thing the next morning.

So Tuesday, during their phone call, Bob proudly advises his "father" that he is officially a big brother. And I can hear the reaction on the other end. Fear. Sadness. The threat that Bob might actually find another male (albeit a 7lb, 5oz one) more interesting and fun than he is.

Then yesterday, Bob spent his 4 hour weekly evening with db. When I picked him up, he was surly and full of attitude. I told him to knock it off, that if he was mad at me about something, we could talk about it, but I won't tolerate a bunch of sass for no reason. By the time we got home, he chilled, and it was a normal evening.

This morning, I asked him to please not try to fill the cats' water dish, and he went into a my-drugs-haven't-kicked-in fit. This isn't unusual; it happens occasionally before the drugs take effect. What was unusual was the magnitude to which his rage escalated this morning. He was pissed. Very, very pissed. And I, being sleep deprived and hormonal, wasn't handling it the way I probably should have (I sort of missed the cue that things had escalated beyond what's usually effective). Lucky for me (and Bob), my husband was able to step in and do and say all the right things, and after what seemed like forever but was really only 10 or 15 minutes, he got Bob calmed down (and the drugs kicked in) and all was well again.

Like I said, it's not unusual for Bob to get put in time out in the morning before things take effect. What was unusual today was for him to actually have to be restrained while we waited. Which makes me think Bob's been hearing a whooooole lot of fucking crap from who other than dear old dad.

So when I considered db's email this morning, the one where he ever so graciously offers to pick Bob up "at a location closer to your home" next Wednesday at 9:00 am (remember, the original agreement was he would pick him up Wednesday at 4:00pm), I asked myself, "is it worth it to point out his error and insist the original arrangement be kept?"

And I decided, fuck yeah. It is.

So I'm playing hardball. Because I'm tired of giving that asshole an inch and having him tie me up with the whole damn yard.

And now, the obligatory Damn That's a Cute Baby Photo: