Child Predators

One of the most difficult jobs as a parent is protecting our kids. And protecting them from child predators is ranked #1 in my book.

As the mother of a female elementary school child I am often confronted with the "spending the night" issue. It is NO! A big fat NO! Too young. I talk to her about others touching her and who should and shouldn't and when it is appropriate (like at the doctor for an exam with mommy in the room) and when it isn't. But I am not about to forfeit my daughter's innocence at such a young age. I am not naive enough to believe it won't be lost all too soon anyway by her own choice. . .

UGH! Moving on. The thought makes my stomach turn . . .

So there is this girl in her class whose parent's are divorced. One random Friday her dad calls after school (whom I have never met) and he invite's my daughter over to hang out and have pizza with his daughter and even spend the night!!!! I was so stunned by the bold offer I didn't even know what to say at first. Is this guy serious? I mean, I don't know you and you think I am just going to drop my daughter off to your house for the night just because your daughter is in her class. I THINK NOT MISTER!

So I say, yes, only to the hanging out and invite myself along. I claim my daughter is going through a stage of not wanting me to leave her anywhere - which is actually true. This seems to catch him off guard. He was ok with it, but seemed a bit bothered that I would be accompanying her.

So I ask the time and the directions and get the sense that he doesn't really want us to come now. But he offers up directions and upon arrival we are at his girlfriend's house???? No wonder he was probably not wanting me to show up. I hung out anyway. She seemed nice enough and all. They were gracious and we all ate pizza together. I offered to pay my share and they insisted I not. Ok. Whatever.

At the end of the nighthis daughter started asking if my daughter could sleep over. Of course, I am in no way going to do this but she was egging on my daughter to ask me. Even when I said no. The dad's girlfriend started chiming in and saying that the little girl even had a flat screen tv in her room and how fun will that be? I was getting irritated. Not only were they seeming to try to bribe her but they should have told the girl to stop asking me and putting me on the spot so many times when I already said No. Finally, after about the 20th time the Dad told her to stop asking and then she wanted to know why I wouldn't let my daughter stay over. It was bizarre and I just proceeded to pack up and leave.

Said little girl visits our house twice. Dad has no problem leaving her with us. Fine with me. His perogative. I know I am not a child predator. But he doesn't. Dumb ass.

A few days ago the Dad called to invite my daughter over for another Friday after school visit. He spoke with my husband. Ole' husband turned the conversation around smoothly and got him to bring his daughter over to our house instead. After he hung up he explained to me that the Dad kept asking for us to just drop her off at his place and they would get pizza. Of course my husband is privvy to my weird feelings of the first visit.

When the dad arrives to pick up his daughter after that visit he lingers a bit and chit chats. He asks if my daughter can come over the next day during the day to play. He was just going to be cutting grass and would make the kids hot dogs for lunch. I said, "Sure, give us a call in the morning and I will come over with her. If not me, my husband will." He got uncomfortable again. He said, "You can just drop her off. My girlfriend will be there to watch the girls while I cut the grass." My husband chimed in that our daughter doesn't like to be left alone at other people's houses. His response was "Still?"

So we ended with him saying he would call in the morning and we promised one of us would stop by with our daughter.

Guess what? He never called.

Just me or does this story seem weird?

Columbine

I remember where I was when the masacre at Columbine took place 10 years ago today. What an awful tragedy that changed so many lives forever. My thoughts are with the students and teachers who were killed and injured that day. My thoughts are with the students and teachers who luckily stayed safe that day but will forever be affected by the emotional scars. My thoughts are with the parents and families of everyone in that building on that day who also have to live with their memories of the debilitating fear they must have experienced. And also, my thoughts are with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's parents and families today.

Unbelievable

Ok...I am beyond irritated and I'm going to use this blog to vent before I drive my husband crazy! :-)

My father-in-law and his new wife are going to be in for a rude awakening when it's time for them to receive gifts from us again!

Let me start by saying that for some reason, a few years ago, my in-laws (when they were still married) stopped sending my husband, their only child, a gift for his birthday. I'm not a greedy person but I just don't get that. They have money so that wasn't the issue. They just all of a sudden decided to stop sending him a gift. Let me say that as long as I'm alive, my kids will never have a birthday that they don't receive a gift from their parents. But of course that changed and they started sending gifts again when we forgot my father-in-law's birthday a couple of years ago. Needless to say, he let us have it and chewed us out! Well I did genuinely feel bad and apologized but I also made it clear that he set the precedence that birthdays weren't that important seeing as he couldn't be bothered to send his son a small gift for his. So this year my husband got a $50 Best Buy gift card from his dad for his birthday. That's very generous of him and my husband appreciated it. I only get cards from him on my birthday which is fine by me but I sure hope he doesn't expect us to send his new wife anything other than a card for her birthday. But here is where I'm pissed...he and his wife, who both have plenty of money, just sent our almost 5 year old a macrame friendship bracelet kit that has ugly shells and dark, earth-tone colored wooden beads. It's HIDEOUS!!! It's not even remotely cute or girly and it's completely inappropriate for a 5 year old! There's no way she would be able to make these things! Oh, and that's not all! They didn't bother to wrap it and included a simple little card that would have been appropriate to give to a neighbor for their birthday. They couldn't even be bothered to get her a "granddaughter" birthday card! And not wrapping a 5 year old's gift??? WTF???

I'm sorry, I may sound like the worst, most ungrateful person on the face of the earth but I just can't help it. And trust me, other gifts they've sent my kids have been equally cheap pieces of crap but this one just takes the cake. I think the no wrapping and the BS card just pushed me over the edge. And this comes after they sent my husband and me a bird feeder for Christmas. You're probably thinking a bird feeder doesn't sound so bad. It's not, except for the fact that we have to go out and buy something to hang it on so essentially it was half a gift! The real kicker is the fact that I seriously doubt that her three daughters and their husbands got a damn bird feeder for Christmas!

And just so you know that I'm not someone who just expects a lot, my mother-in-law was vacationing with us at Disney the week before Christmas last year. She asked for Christmas gift ideas and said her budget was $100 for each of us...we're a family of four. I told her that my hubby and I didn't need anything and she should just get the kids something small while we were at Disney. So you see, I don't need gifts, much less expensive ones but by God, don't bother if you're just going to be flat out thoughtless about it! I would have been very happy had they gotten my daughter a $10 dvd and WRAPPED it. Just wait until my father-in-law's birthday comes around and instead of receiving his usual $100 gift card from us, he gets a cheap set of windchimes in a box, unwrapped. We'll see just how special that makes him feel!