SS plays PeeWee tackle football and seems to really like it. I took him to practice and all the way home he has always seemed really excited about what they did, etc. He is maturing and since he runs pretty fast, he gets a lot of playing time. The very first year that he played, he told Hubby that he did not want to miss games to go to his mom's house. Before, it meant that he probably didn't go to her house from Labor Day until the end of October. Now, we are closer, so we decided that he could go after his game on the Saturdays that were in her weekends. Practice doesn't start until late August here either, so he can stay at her house longer in the summer.

Demented calls SS almost every day. Sometimes, when we come home on Sunday after he has been to here house, she will call him. Sometimes, she calls him twice a day. Just before school started, she had called and couldn't get a hold of him, so she asked her sister (Aunt Money) who "has a lot of money" to quote SS, to buy a cell phone for him. THEN she decided to ask Hubby about it. Hubby told her "no." That he couldn't control what she did at her house, but if the phone came here, it would be taken away and returned to her at the next visit. She didn't really like that, and I have no idea if she returned it or what. She tried to talk him into it by saying that her sisters (Aunt Money and Aunt Runner) could call him and he could text his sisters (DD and SD22) I asked DD (who is 19) what she thought of texting him and she said, "10 year olds don't need to learn texting - they barely know English!" In the entire time that I have lived with SS, his aunt's have NEVER once called him at our house - not even to wish him Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas. Never.

The day before school started, I met Demented to take SS home, she said that SS had told her that he didn't know who his teacher was. I said that we were going to stop by the open house on our way home if it wasn't over when we got there (she was late) She said, "If not, are you guys going to take him tomorrow?" Me: "Uh...No." What fifth grader wants Mommy and Daddy bringing him to his own school and walking him to his classroom? Does she think that he won't be able to find it and he'll end up sitting on the floor in the short kid's hall crying cuz he's lost? Does she really think that staff would let him wander around lost all day? He's mature enough for a cell phone, but not smart enough to find his own class in his own elementary school? So, SS and I go to open house, he finds his room just fine all on his own, I am given a nice folder with 5 detailed information cards to fill out (which I brought home for Hubby to do.)

The next day, Hubby gets an email from Demented (email address: SS's mom @ blahblah.com) demanding to know HOW we knew about the open house and WHY wasn't she told about it? Because that is something that she would have liked to do with SS! Ok - first: we googled the schools website and looked it up. Second: SS spent 30 seconds in his room - he found his desk, handed me the folder and ran off to see his friends. Third: Was she planning on filling out all the dumb cards? Noooooo - she just wanted to waive around the MOM sign and make sure that everyone knew that she was the MOM. As usual - she waives the title and does none of the work.

Then, Hubby gets another email saying that "I can really feel the pinch in my time with SS because of football. I am going to try to come to every game so that I can spend more time with him and support him." She does not like that SS plays football and it's not because of the possibility of him getting hurt, it's because he chose football over her. Her idea of supporting him is to sit with her chin in her hand or her hands in her lap looking bored and then to complain about how cold it is. She can't even fake enthusiasm.