I am starting to see that some of this work has paid off.

When we first moved in together 8 months ago, I made an agreement with my company that I would work from home as the new house is over an hour away from my office. My FDH thought this was great and I soon realized why. Once summer hit, he decided it would be a good idea to have the kids here more so they weren’t just sitting around the BM’s house all day. He thought it would be lovely to have them here swimming in the pool, etc…

Of course, the problem with that was that they have zero respect for the fact that I am working an important job that is equal to their father’s and that working from home does not mean that I am not working. Despite my reservations, I did agree to allow them to try it out and be here a few extra days in the summer. It went horribly. They held loud conversations outside my office door while I was on important conference calls, slammed kitchen cabinets, use my office phone to call their mother (they all have cell phones), blasted the TV and even went so far to play the damn piano which is situated directly outside my office. They were told in advance that none of this was acceptable but of course, they did as the pleased. In addition, SD11 has diabetes so I was getting calls/emails from FDH asking me to make sure she tested her blood, asked what she’d had to eat, etc… It was simply not reasonable for me to deal with that. And furthermore, you are not supposed to have kids in the home like that when you enter the work from home program. They could’ve gotten me fired or my privilege revoked.

FDH and I had many arguments about this. It really irked me that he was treating my job as if I was a SAHM. And prior to us moving in together, no one had issue with the kids sitting around BM’s house all day so why now? Over the months,there were many times when he tried to make me keep the kids here with me so that they could have more enjoyable days off. It showed zero respect for me and my work. Not to mention that he truly doesn’t understand that I can only take so much time with them and our current schedule is plenty for me. Instead of understanding that moving into a new home, in a new town where 4 skids come and go regularly was stressful enough for me, he added to the pile and insulted my career. Thanks, sweetheart.

So, last week when I realized that following our weekend with the kids was not only MLK day off from school but also a teacher planning day today, I panicked. I was bracing myself for the inevitable “Hey, well, we have the kids this weekend and they have no school Monday and Tuesday so I will take them home Tuesday night after work” which would mean that I’d be stuck with them while working today or a massive argument would ensue. Well, guess what?? That’s not what happened. He took the kids home yesterday evening and that was that.

It just hit me this morning that he’s actually starting to get it. So, I just sent him a quick thank you note and he seemed pleased.

This is on top of him suddenly requiring that SD11 clean up after herself and making statements like “We like to keep this house neat and clean so that we can all enjoy a nice home” after she whines “Whhhhhhyyyyyy?? It’s no big deeeeeaaaaalllll” when reminded to pick up after herself.

I do believe my man is making progress! Yay!