13 Year Old More Mature than Almost 17 Year Old!

I have been editing videos and photos tonight from files I've taken over the last couple of weeks.  One of the videos was of my 13-year-old daughter (8th grade) marching with the high school marching band a week ago.  She had a piece of music that no other 8th grader has ever been able to play in the whole history of the band according to the band teacher.  She could so she got the part. 

Was my husband there to see our daughter play this one time a year thing, with her special part?  No, he had to work later that night so he was sleeping.  Did our daughter understand that dad had to work?  Of course she did.  (Never mind that he could've arranged his sleep schedule slightly to attend!) 

So why can't an almost 18-year-old understand that it just isn't financially feasible to spend all that money, plus lose needed work hours, to drive nine hours for about ten minutes of playing time when a 13-year-old can understand why her dad wasn't there for her? 

Why the emotional blackmail?  Oh yeah, because she can obviously get away with it.  Her mother's been a good teacher.

They get their child support no matter how many hours dad does or doesn't work.  It's the rest of our bills that suffer when dad doesn't work so it has little meaning to them.

I'm writing my angst down as much as I can so it doesn't spill over into my daily life.  With my husband's work schedule, I'm basically a single parent all week long and being a ticked off angry parent, the only one they have to deal with, isn't fair to them.  Writing it all out seems to help when the anger starts to hit.