That, the helmet-less riding, the lack of tutor (that he's promised for the last two years), as well as a few other things... well, let's just say I was less than pleased with him this summer.

But... he's taking her school shopping, he had her working with him (which is a lot of metric math and reading) and paid her for her work, and he said she's "ready to come home".

So I've readjusted my irritation and am counting down the days. I could not be more excited.

BM does stuff like that all the time. If she is FORCED to do something she doesn't want to do, she tweeks it just a little so she still feels in control.

For instance, BM did not want to send SD for a beach vacation until DH spilled the beans (before we were even officially engaged) that we were getting married on that vacation. So in order to have some sort of say-so over a situation she has no say-so over, she drags her feet buying the plane ticket then comes up with some activity SD HAS to do the day after the wedding so SD flies home at 6am the morning after our wedding. Only got to be with us for 3-1/2 days of a 6-day vacation.

DH does the passive-agressive thing, too. If he doesn't want hto commit to something, he'll keep putting it off until either something comes up that gets him out of it or it's too expensive to do. Then he'll complain about how much it cost until I let him out of it.

Once when SD was like 9, my friends wanted to go out for New Years Eve. He didn't want to go, but didn't tell me that. I knew BM wanted SD with her so he really had no excuse. Then, after plans were made and I was almost ready to go, he saunters in and says he has to pick up SD because he promised BM he would have her. Well, after TONS of fighting and crying, it comes out that he actually asked to have SD that night just so he wouldn't have to go out with us. Nice, huh?

LOL! I've learned to spot this crap from a mile away.

Oh, and Silver, the ultra-expensive plane ticket is a pretty good way to get you to leave him alone about the other stuff. JMO.

Good thing he's responsible for the cost of the ticket. He admitted he messed up and should have gotten it a lot earlier (or at least started looking) than 6 days before travel. He lives in a very rural area so it can be difficult to get tickets out if you don't plan ahead. But EVERYONE flies into LAX... so... it's not like I asked him to fly her into the rural airport where I live.

"tweaks it so she feels in control"

That's it in a nutshell.

We got my ss back the Saturday before school started on Tuesday. So it wasn't much time to get him back on schedule either. Oh well.

Is LAX LA? Cause that's just odd he couldn't find one then. Does he have to pay for all the air fare for her to visit him?

LAX is LA, and yes, it's pretty odd that he couldn't find more than one flight coming in. Even puddle jumpers eventually get a person there.

Yes, he pays airfare, most of the time. I have paid on occasion, but that was my choice.

SS and SGS were here this weekend on the way to taking SGS home from his summer with Dad. While they had a great summer, SGS was so anxious to get home to his BM and get back into school, see his school friends and get back into the school year routine.

She started 4th grade today, AMAZING how time flies.