Fun times at Rothschild High

Tonight at dinner was another fun night of living with divorce issues. My oldest two children are from my first marriage. Our custody agreement has been a never ending battle with my ex and my children. He lives in one school district, while I live in another. From the beginning, it was my school district that was the preferred choice for our children to go to. We have tried to share the children 50/50 as much as possible. Obviously there are times that this is not possible. Currently, the boys stay with me, Sunday night through Thursday night while school is in session and their father gets them every weekend. All my boys see is that they only get to be with dad for two days. What they don't understand is that he gets the down time with them, while I have them only for business.... showers, homework, chores and bed. Sure I could be a mom who lets them stay up as late as they want, not make them do their homework or chores, but I try to have some resemblance of a "normal" childhood and try to be a responsible parent. Last time I checked it was my job as a parent to prepare them to be independent contributors to society... not their friend. But with this responsibility also comes the downside of not always getting the sunny side of my children. Tonight was one of those nights. We mapped out the hours spent with each parent, and my share is 24 hrs a week, while their father has them for 29hrs. I think the hours together is fair, and have kept my mouth shut about the type of time. I tried to get him to do one week on and one week off, but that isn't too plausible since he lives in another district.

Sometimes it sucks being the responsible one. I know that it is hard on my children as well as myself that their parents are divorced. I hate that they have this issue! Yes, it sucks... yes its not fair.... but this is our life....