My daughter gets out of school an hour before my son. Their dad lives about 15 minutes from us. On the nights he has the kids, he picks up my daughter and then they usually stop by our home, before going to get my son. If you are a single parent you know that there are always things that need to go back and forth between houses. My daughter has to wear head gear at night, then there is her soccer attire and bag, books, projects, papers, clothes, etc. What a responsibility for our kids to try and keep track of everything between two houses. Personally, I have a hard enough time with one house. I must admit they do a fairly good job. We have done our share of making extra trips over to the other one's home for forgotten items, over the years.

Today her dad needed to go run an errand and she did not want to go so she stayed with me for 30-40 minutes. Lately she has been wanting me to talk to her dad about going out to eat all of the time. She would prefer to stay home and eat. She says it gets old. She has tried saying something to her dad but there is usually a reason for them to go out to dinner. During her brief time here, she was asking me again, if I would talk to him.

I have explained to her that it is her place to talk to him. Apparently she does not feel "heard" and thinks her dad will listen to me (don't know why?) I tell her that it is not my place. I have no control over what their dad does with them when they are with him. I can not tell him what, where and when to feed them.

Okay, so it is a little more complicated. Their dad had a son with a "friend." So they tend to go to dinner with her, their 1/2 brother and her other children. It is really not my place or business to get involved. One of those awkward situations as a single parent. I will talk to my daughter further the next time it comes up. I will do what I can to help her think of ideas of how to better communicate her feelings to her dad.

copyright 2008  Shelley Grieser  All rights reserved.

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