Stepkid Birthdays

My stepson turns 17 this year.  Then it will be one more year of having a legal relationship with the ex!  Yeah for us.

I'm sure he'll be asking for something music-related for his birthday (he's like his dad in that regard).  Usually, he picks uber expensive gifts. Maybe we can nip that request in the bud and find him an appropriately priced mixer before he sends us his gift list and head off the frustration those requests bring.

I have a love/hate thing going with my stepchildren's birthdays.  On one hand, I LOVE them because it means one less year of having a legal relationship with the ex.  On the other hand, I don't like holidays gift buying for my stepkids anymore.  Their gift requests are always SO huge.  Maybe that's ok with their mom (she always did go big at holidays for them so it's really expected anymore) but that's hard for us.  I think we'll jump start the gift buying ideas ahead of time and find him a nice mixer for his recording without breaking the bank.

Read more...

Child Wants What Stepkids Have

My ten-year-old is asking for a laptop for Christmas!  I can't believe she is talking about the latest laptops and wanting to put one on her list to Santa (she still sort of believes but I doubt that will be for much longer - - she is on the fence right now about Santa).  She saw my stepson and stepdaughter come over with their own laptops this summer, that they got for Christmas from their mom, and now she wants one too.  Yeah, that's not happening.  I hope she comes up with some smaller items on her list because Santa can't afford laptops this year (or next).  If she knew about Santa, I don't think she'd be asking for one.

Read more...

Stepkid Ramblings - College, Paternity, Gifts

So much for getting some distance from her suffocating mother.  My stepdaughter isn't going to room at college. She's going to drive back and forth (about an hour each way - in good traffic).  That means she doesn't need that huge flat-screen television from us anymore that she'd "requested" for her dorm room for her graduation present (along with a projector and brand new car - the other two items she asked us for...I know, pick yourself up off the floor...I had to.).  Now she has requested we buy her college books for her as her high school graduation gift.  How much are books anyway for a college that costs $65,000/year?  Any estimates?  I don't have a clue either.

So, continuing to live with the ex while in college means that, 1) sd will continue to feel like she needs prozac, 2) child support will drop a little because she'll have graduated but the relationship will remain the way it is now - difficult - because mommy dearest will be standing between her kid and her kid's father.  Ah well...that's the way it's been for all these years now...why change right?

Since when do you tell people what to get you for graduation?

I asked my husband if he wanted to make a bet with me on what his ex will get sd for graduation.  I'm 99% sure she will buy her a new car.  I was pretty sure of that before we got the news that she was going to making that haul everyday but now that she is - betcha it's a new car.  I wonder if that was dangled in front of her as a way to get her to live at home?  Hmm...  Anyway, my husband didn't take the bet.

Her mother's boss just bought sd a new laptop for her graduation present.  That was actually the gift we were planning on getting her at one point for her graduation but the ex told us SHE was buying it for her instead.

I've often wondered on the paternity of my stepson.  Wouldn't you if there was a guy that's been in the picture that buys kids and ex HUGE gifts (flat screen televisions, computers, trips to Disney, etc.)...kinda looks like my stepson (moreso than my husband)...ex didn't tell my hubby she was pregnant with my ss until she was three months along and they were living together...see the issue here?

Oh well...rattling over.  I see a long list of housekeeping that is just calling my name.

Read more...

Stepson Birthday Present

Hubby has picked out his teenage son's birthday present. He considered a $180 gift but $55 sounded much better to him (not sure if my lack of enthusiasm over the $180 gift had anything to do with it but I'm glad he made the decision to change the gift to the less expensive one before I had to speak up about it myself). He left it for me to order but I ran into a problem with gifting it (have to have my bank approve the ex's shipping address on my account, yada yada yada...something I'm not going to do) so I can't right now. Oh well.

Considering stepson didn't bother to contact his dad in any way, shape, or form for Father's Day, I'm not worried about whether it gets there in time (or at all honestly). I'd send him a birthday card and be done with it myself. Maybe I'd include a calendar for 2010 with every holiday and birthday highlighted to get the point across.

I'll tell hubby and leave it up to him. With the way that boy treats his dad and siblings, I'm not making his birthday present my problem. I made an attempt and couldn't complete the order. That's the extent of what I plan to do about it.

Read more...

Broken Xmas Gifts Again

It's no big surprise that my gift from the stepkids was broken when I opened it, just like last year. It amazes me (NOT) that my gifts are the only ones out of all of them in the box that arrives broken. Odd isn't it?

I can just see the ex smacking it against her desk or "oops" dropping it before she packs it up to UPS it to us since I know she's the one who boxes it up and ships it out.

You'd think she'd grow up by now.

Read more...