Hello!

Hope you all had a lovely holiday! We spent the day at my IL's. Not ideal but it was better (at least in some ways) than spending it home alone by ourselves. And since we certainly weren't about to go spend the day at NM's house.....

I'm still busy keeping the house clean while it's on the market as well as looking for homes for us to move into once this one sells. We've had a couple really good contenders but, so far, still haven't found that "perfect" house. We had thought we'd found "the one" but it turned out that the uneven floors couldn't be fixed which took it off our list. We're currently entertaining a two bedroom/two bath house but are waiting to hear if the owners are willing to take care of a very minor mold problem that we noticed when we went to look at it.

Things have continued to be okay with NM for the most part. There have been a couple minor comments, such as a couple weeks ago when she casually mentioned to me that NHS and NSJ "weren't ready to get back involved with you (meaning me) yet". As if to imply that *I* was somehow the one that hurt *them* or something that they should need more time before being willing to get back involved with me. *eyeroll* Whatever. I just laughed and told NM that that was FINE by me as I didn't want anything to do with either of them again at any point EVER!

The other issue I've had with NM is that she has begun to push to be able to take DS out on her own again. She asked me last week over the phone if I would be willing to "work with her" at her eventually being able to take DS out on her own. At the time I said yes. My line of thinking was that I was willing to give her another chance to prove I could trust her - which I fully realize is unlikely and may never happen - and that this would take a preliminary estimate of 6 to 12 months at which point we'd re-evaluate and see how things were going, how I felt, etc.

However, in NM's follow-up comments after I'd agreed to work on things with her, I get the distinct impression that she thinks she can just come over to my house two or three times a week for a few weeks and that she, DS and I will all go up to the corner store two or three times at which point I will magically be okay with her taking DS out on her own wherever and whenever she wants. So NOT going to happen.

To be honest, it's not DS' immediate safety I worry about. I do not fear that NM would allow him to wander off or leave him unsupervised or anything like that. It's NSJ. While I can respect that NM feels differently toward her dh than I do, the bottom line is that I do NOT trust her to honor my dh's and my wishes for our son not to have ANY contact whatsoever with NSJ. I don't even want NM to put NSJ on speaker phone and for NSJ to say hello to DS. NO CONTACT whatsoever - no phone calls, no cards/gifts/emails. Zip. Zero. Nada.

I've also made it very clear, as did my dh the last time we sat and talked with NM in our living room approximately two years ago, that we do NOT feel comfortable with DS going to NM's house under any circumstances. Despite that, NM kept making comments to the effect of, "Well if DS was at my house and NSJ called to say he was coming home early, I'd start packing him up and leave immediately. And if NSJ happened to show up unexpected or earlier than planned and asked who NSJ was, I would just tell him 'That's your grandpa. He did some stuff to your mommy when she was little that hurt your mommy really bad and that's why your mommy doesn't want you around your grandpa.'" I just said to NM, "ONE, that is too much adult stuff to put on a small child. TWO, we can circumvent the need for all that discussion IF DS ISN'T AT YOUR HOUSE!" The fact that NM keeps talking about DS coming to her house, even if she says that she knows it will never happen, tells me that she plans to get her way at some point.

I've decided that as soon as NM is back from her vacation in a day or two, I am going to sit down with her and tell her in no uncertain terms the following:

1) DS will NEVER be over at her house. He won't be there with dh and/or me and he most definitely would never be there without one of us present. Bottom line, there will never be ANY babysitting him at her house, no sleepovers, no "happy family" get-togethers at her house for holidays or birthdays, nothing. DS WILL NOT BE AT HER HOUSE AGAIN EVER.

2) It is entirely likely that I would NEVER feel comfortable with her taking DS out on her own as I simply DO NOT TRUST HER to respect and/or honor dh's and my wishes to not allow contact of any kind with NSJ. More to the point, I don't really see any need for her to take DS out on her own, especially to her home, so what would be the point in "working at it" to get there?

3) I do not desire at ANY point to EVER have contact of ANY kind with either NHS or NSJ again. I am not interested in meeting with them at some point to "talk things out", nor do I desire to hear about what they may or may not have said about me. This includes good or bad. The both of them are as good as dead to me and I do not desire any relationship of any kind with them now or at any point in the future. Period. End of story.

4) NM is welcome to visit DS here at my home provided she calls ahead of time to make sure it is okay and that we do not have other plans first. 

If her motivation is as she claims and she just wants a relationship with myself and DS, then she will back off pushing me about taking DS out on her own and be content with what I'm willing to give her. That said, I do not anticipate that this discussion will go well which is why I plan to do it when DS is out of the house. However, I am hoping that NM will at least begrudgingly agree to do as I've asked. 

And if she doesn't? Well, admittedly, I will be hurt and upset for a bit but I feel confident that I can handle whatever it is she throws my way. I just need to remind myself that I've already survived all they had to throw at me when I was just a defenseless child. Now, as an adult, I'm even stronger and more capable than before. (And of course I always have the option of going back to NC again should I choose!)

In other news, apparently my NHS and NBIL have plans to move back to our home state of Ohio after the first of the year. Supposedly NBIL has a friend who is willing to interview him and likely hire him. (Guess this "friend" doesn't know about NBIL's horrible employment history where he's never kept a job beyond a month or two.) According to my aunt N, quite coincidentally, this talk of moving to Ohio - as well as other talk about how horrible it apparently is where we currently live - began right around the same time that NM and I got back in touch and began trying to work on our relationship. It seems my sister dear can't handle the fact that I am back in the picture and that - according to aunt N and other extended FOO members - NM is much happier now that I'm back in her life.

I don't know whether to roll my eyes and gag at the pathetic-ness of the situation or laugh hysterically at how absurd it all is. To think that they would actually pull up and move away from friends and family all because of lil ole me? Are you serious??!! How dumb!

Their whole argument about (current state of residence) is that there are supposedly "too many minorities" here. Of course they used much more vulgar, racist terms but, you get the idea. Bottom line, NHS and NBIL are NEVER happy or content with ANYTHING. They have something negative to say about everything and I mean that most literally - truly, they find fault with everything and everyone. I've never met anyone more negative than the two of them.

The funniest thing of all - at least for me! - is that I know with 100% certainty that within just a few days, they will begin to complain about how "awful" it is up there and want to move back. If not within a few days than most certainly after enduring one of Ohio's freezing cold winters. Only, at that point, they will have sold their home here and be in far more debt than they are currently and they will have nowhere to go back TO. LOL Yep, funny stuff!

Well, I think that about does it for updates. Hope you're all doing well!

DA

ARRRGGGHHH!! I'm freaking SURROUNDED by N's!!

The N IL's strike again. 


After having DS about 5 1/2 years ago, dh and I had decided that we were done having children. We didn't expect to want anymore at any point and we were content with that decision. Until recently.


Due to a recent - ahem - "incident", the possibility that I might be pregnant came to pass. Suddenly, dh and I began thinking, "What if?" and realized that maybe we weren't done having kids quite yet. The past week or so, we've done a lot of talking and thinking and have started to think that we may want to try for one more.


The "cons" for lack of a better word are:


1) Because dh's employer was kind enough to cut health coverage for me and ds a few years back, I no longer have maternity coverage. This would mean that we'd have to get Medicaid temporarily to cover my prenatal visits and care as well as to help us pay for the birth.


2) I am currently 35 (not that that is ancient by any means) but it does mean that I'm quickly approaching the end of my "window of opportunity" as I understand it. Yes, some women have babies later in life but I've always heard that the window begins to start closing at 35.


3) DS is currently 5 1/2. IF we were pregnant right now, that would mean that there would be a 6 year age difference between DS and the new baby which does cause us some concern.


4) There are a few more minor issues that worry me, like what if I have to have another c-section and am unable to provide the usual daily care for DS temporarily while I heal? Who will help us out? Dh can't take time off work, nor can he take DS to school every day for however long and then go back to pick him up after school. And since the bus system is horrible here - major bullying problems, etc. - him riding the bus isn't an option. It would help if I had any sort of family support here that I could count on but, obviously, I do not, so that is an issue.


Despite all the "cons" and our worries, dh and I have been feeling rather excited about the possibility and, in my excitement, I mentioned a few of my thoughts to MIL when she was here the other day. As crazy as MIL was when she found out we were expecting last time - and as obsessed and she has been with DS and my new nephew - I fully expected MIL would be over the moon with excitement at the prospect of having yet another addition to the family. Turns out, that was not the case at all.


MIL has this way of, instead of coming out and saying how she feels, wording things about how other people would probably feel or what she's heard from other people which is her way of saying that she doesn't agree with what you're saying. So MIL says that other people have always said you don't want more than 3 years difference in age between the two kids, blah blah, otherwise they might not get along, blah blah and that she just happened to agree with that line of thought. By the time she was through - and though it was in actuality probably only a few minutes that passed of her talking, it felt like much longer - I felt like an irresponsible idiot who was stupid for even considering having another baby given my advanced age, etc. I was very hurt and completely crushed. Whatever excitement I had before I talked to her was completely gone.


After a day of feeling down and doubting my decision to have another baby, I emailed my aunt N who - bless her - basically told me to screw my IL's and anyone else who didn't have anything supportive or kind to say! She said that 6 years difference didn't mean SQUAT provided that the arrival of a new baby didn't mean the exclusion of DS. So long as we included him in the process, DS would be just fine with the new baby. As for the financial aspects of the issue, aunt N said that there was no shame in having to go on assistance temporarily and that, after all, we'd been paying into it all these years hadn't we? So why not reap some of the benefits? It wasn't like we were taking advantage or exploiting the system like some people do. Rather, we were using it as it was intended to be used - for people with genuine need.


After speaking with my aunt N, I felt much better for a couple days. Then yesterday, I couldn't stand it anymore and broke down and bought a pregnancy test. It turned out it was negative but, while I was disappointed, I realized that didn't mean we couldn't still try so I was still excited to a point. Until yesterday evening.


I was soaking in the tub, relaxing, and dh came into the bathroom for a second and we started talking. At one point he mentioned that he wants to talk to his dad (FIL) about this whole issue. I said, "What for? Like his permission?" Dh said no, that he was looking for advice from his dad. I was like, "Advice about what?" and he said he just wanted to run things by his dad. I said something else and we went back and forth for a few minutes and then dhdh walked out of the room for some reason.


A bit later, we were in the living room - dh was watching tv while I worked on a sign I'm painting for a client - and we again began discussing the issue of dh talking with his dad about this topic. I finally said, "I still don't understand what it is you're looking for from your dad. Are you wanting his financial advice?" and dh responded, "No. I'm not 'looking for' anything." and then added, "I just want to ask him, am I being irresponsible financially by having this baby given our current finances and state of the economy, blah blah?" Despite all dh said, it certainly still sounds to me as if he is looking for something from his parents, specifically his father, be it validation, "permission" or whatever.


My feeling on the whole matter is, again, this is something that should be OUR decision and OURS alone. I know as surely as I know my own name, that MIL mentioned what I said to her a few days ago to FIL already and I can guarantee you that FIL will have much the same opinion as MIL did. My guess is that they both assume that, given our financial status, we will eventually look to them to foot the bill for the new baby but that is NOT the case. I don't need shit from my IL's, especially money-wise. And given their past behavior of holding things over our head and/or things coming with several strings attached, I'd rather live in a box and go on welfare permanently than to ask them for a single cent anyhow but, I digress.


At any rate, as I was saying before I got off on a bit of a tangent, I just know that FIL is going to say things he has no right saying to his son, about how HELL YEAH we'd be behaving irresponsibly by having another baby and about how that window of opportunity has "passed" for me/us and how he doesn't think it's a good idea. And I also know that, despite what dh may say about making up his own mind and his parents' opinions not having any effect on his decision, FIL negative speech WILL have an effect on dh's thoughts. Dh is already worried about how he'd provide for another person being that he is the sole provider. And, though he won't admit it, I know his pride also comes into play when he thinks about going on assistance even if only temporarily. Dh commented recently that, if we still had our old insurance with maternity coverage, he'd be 100% for it and ready to begin trying today. I think he very much wants another child but is scared about how he'll be able to provide for all of us. As a religious and resourceful woman, I know and trust it will all work out but dh is very logical minded - he's a man, after all - and isn't willing to trust on "it'll work out". Which I can understand in a way.


I'm just so sick of my IL's and the way they treat us like total idiots who are incapable of finding our way out of a paper bag. Dh and I have never been the type who do things impulsively. We think things through, especially when it's a big decision like whether or not to have another child. Despite our proving our capability to function and thrive on our own however, my IL's continue to treat us like stupid children, FIL especially. Furthermore, they know NOTHING of boundaries. There is no line that they view as being "uncrossable" because THEY are the parents and WE are the children and, as such, they have every right to steer us in the right direction or whatever. If dh and I were considering buying some uber-expensive luxury item, then I could see where FIL might have a right to say, "Umm...do you think that's wise given your current financial status?" But this is a BABY we're talking about. A baby that I will carry in MY womb for 9+ months and suffer through pregnancy and delivery with. A baby that WE will have the responsibility of protecting, nurturing, feeding and caring for, NOT MY IL'S!!! And, as such, I think they ought to BUTT THE FUCK OUT and keep their yaps shut if they don't have anything positive and/or supportive to say!


Honestly, sometimes they just piss me off so much! It's times like these when I wish we could just sell this house and move far, far away and start a whole new life free of stupid N family members. I get so sick of dealing with their rudeness and inappropriateness. Dh, being a (pretty much) "normie" just doesn't see it the way I do. He doesn't think his parents are perfect by any means and admits they have their faults. He just severely downplays those faults as being more of a mere nuisance than an actual problem. I, however, see more and more similarities between his P's and my NM as the time goes on.


One things for sure, I am done being all nicey nice with my IL's and trying to play happy family with them. From now on, I'll be civil, polite and respectful when I'm forced to be around them but I'll be damned if I'll extend myself beyond that. I'm through going above and beyond just to be crapped on and stabbed in the back and manipulated. To hell with them!


DA