I'm glad so many of us had good mother's days.
Oh, wemoon....I also felt really lonely for the first part of the day. Dd's dad asked me to go to a barbecue with him in the afternoon that his friends (whom I've never met, nor was particularly interested in meeting) were having.
I was so bored and lonely, though I took him up on it. I also considered that these are the friends that dd is around while he takes care of her, and it is at the house of a place he frequently takes her to visit. It suddenly made perfect sense that I needed to check these people out.
At first it was totally weird. This woman, who apparently is very familiar wtih dd, just kinda led her away from me and led her all over the yard (a great yard, a stream, a bridge over teh stream, a dog, lots of flowers, hills, etc.). I was so freaked. Who are you, woman? How dare you lead my daughter around like you know her? How dare you call her by name? How dare you lead her up those stairs when i know perfectly well she can climb them on her own?
Then I kinda cooled off. I realized that this was the first time I have seen a stranger interact wtih dd like that. And, in reality, this was a woman who has spent time wtih dd and really likes her. I also thought of all of you who have ex's gfs spending time with your kids, and for the first time really *got* what that must feel like.
Anyway, the people were pretty nice. There was more swearing than I would have liked, and everyone was smoking (we were outside), which sucked, but now I feel a lot more comfortable knowing how dd is around during the day when her dad takes care of her. They were all really nice people, and looked out for dd, and interacted with her positively. Of course there were a lot of things I didn't approve of, like telling her "no, no, no" when she was going for the grill when I had the situation totally under control (and i dont' say "no" to her, i use other words), and picking her up when she falls down, which I always let her do herself, and "hleping" her up stairs and things which I know she can navigate on her own, but considering she doesn't spend a lot of time with these people, I think the positives definitely outweighed the negatives. In a few months her dad won't be taking care of her so much, and she won't be around these people hardly at all anyway, so I can even forgive the swearing.
And, dd's dad got me roses from him and dd. Which was weird. But sweet. But also weird.
But got my chin up, knowing that sometime (hopefully soon) I'll have that great family network. Just getting it off my mind.
to all you ladies!
