Joy of a Working Mommy

So, I'm totally supposed to be doing homework right now, but discipline be damned...

I'm mother to two kids - my 4-year-old son & my 5-year-old stepdaughter. We just got custody of my stepdaughter & it has been an adjustment. It's expensive to suddenly have a kid. At least when you get pregnant, there's a little prep-time (not that one can ever be adequately prepped for such a thing, but let's pretend).

Have I mentioned my babysitter? She is "family" so there are some serious pros & cons with that. There's a cost savings & a little higher level of accountability, but let's just say that there are strings attached. There is no dropping off children & going to work. There is the 20 minute diatribe on the transgressions of her mother, sister, father, husband, etc. that I seem to be unable to escape. I don't want to be a total bitch about it, she does have my kids, after all. But it seems anything short of just walking out the door mid-sentence will be completely ineffective.

She refuses to watch both children more than 1 day a week. It's just too much for her (yet my husband can work & watch both of them...granted, he's a little crabby, but it can be done). We otherwise have to alternate 1 kid with her & 1 with my husband & then both with my husband on Friday. We had to give her an extra day off to buy the 1 day of both kids so my husband can actually make a weekly appearance in the office (I can't work from home).

There is also a disparity in how she treats the kids. One can do no wrong (how did I never notice the rose-scented poo??) & the other is an unmanageable jerk who refuses to listen. Ever. This is according to her 20 minute after work diatribe detailing how put-upon she has been dealing with the terrible behavior.

Now, I have never experienced the unmanageable jerk-ness she describes. My husband has not experienced this either. Frankly, this behavior is an anomaly anywhere but with the babysitter. Perhaps it is not the child. No one likes to be talked to like they are a stupid piece of crap, have orders barked at them, and screamed at for every (normal, age-appropriate) transgression. Well maybe her husband does...the sex can't be that good...but I digress.

So, yeah, we're putting the "problem" child into preschool. To hell with that pesky savings plan. Really tho, I can't subject a child to that. No amount of saving money is worth that. What kind of parent would I be for letting that continue?

And for the record, I don't care that she hates her mother. She's just like her mother. And I'm about to choke the crap out of her for treating one of my kids the way she does.

There. I feel better now.

I really hope the kids do something funny and/or adorable soon. I've got too much stressy stuff to blog about. Perhaps I should have a conversation with them about that...