Tuesday, January 29, 2008

clock battery back-up

yeah

called the house today

last day for my son to get an assignment in that will make or break his mark in this particular class - it will also be one of the marks that will make or break his ability to get into a special multimedia program after high school.

he's not with me. he's at the stbx's house. i still have to get him out of bed. i don't do it as much this year after i drew the line in the sand with him and the stbx. but occasionally.

like today.

today i actually had to wake all of them up. it seems there was a power failure last night. i'm told two of them. seems the stbx doesn't have a battery in the clock radio anymore. she used it for something else.

just like she used to do before i left. just like she used to do with the smoke detector and the carbon monoxide alarm.

except i'm not there to give a shit anymore. so she's late for work, and son makes me 45 minutes late for work because he's way behind.

what an asshat. both of them. i'm really not the most anal retentive person in the world - even if it sounds like it sometimes - but i do know a few things. one is that it's really important to have fresh batteries in the detectors and the clocks.

oh,

and that it's important to dig out snow pants on a day when it's fucking minus fifty-one degrees. even for a boy who's sixteen. because he's too much of an asshole to think of it himself or even to dig them out himself. because he waits for the bus outside, sometimes for up to 15 minutes - which, at fucking minus fifty-one degrees, is a really long time.

but then i discover this morning, the stbx thought it was really weird that i should phone her last night and ask her to get out snow pants for both children, and to make sure they had scarves to cover their faces against the wind.

when son suggested i was a caring father, she repeated that she thought it was weird - especially related to my sixteen year old son. son pints out that she does lots of things pre-emptively as a concerned parent. she says "that's because i'm your mother". son asks her if only mothers are allowed to perform caring acts.

she says "well, he never did before. i think he's just doing this to make a point to me - to suggest i'm not a good parent." son tells her she's full of shit. she pouts.

----

son's bedroom is being painted. for the last month or more... son has been sleeping on the couch. son wants to go to bed at 9pm because he is tired (son wanting to sleep before fucking midnight is a rare thing and should be encouraged). wife and son's friend (who is still living there) won't get off the couch from watching TV for 2 hours. son plays computer games because stbx won't let him sleep on the upstairs couch.

son is tired as a dog in the morning

----

fuck

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well the good thing is that her incompetence becomes more and more apparent to the kids. Too bad that to be able to let her sink or swim, you'd have to do so with the kids as well... I know they need to learn to be self-reliant, but you also don't want to mess up their future, so you want to provide back-up for them... it's a tough line to walk.

We're looking at sending our oldest to boarding school, and his inability to wake on his own scares me as to whether he can succeed there. I've never been one to throw my kids into the water to either sink or swim.... obviously you aren't either. The good thing is that they now can recognize some of what you have done all along. I know it's a pain, but at least you know they're beginning to appreciate it and not always take those batteries and gloves for granted.

And yeah you might be anal... lol... but you're still a good father. Besides, nothing wrong with a bit of anal now and then. *grin*

Wien. said...

Cad,
I can feel your frustration.

Is it an option for son to come live with you?

Maybe buy your son a new alarm clock with batteries, and supply him with new ones every other month. At least he will be able to get up on time. That is unless stbx doesn't use them for something else.

W.