NO-YES-NO: So last week was the boys' Spring Break, and my sister invited to take them both to the zoo with her kids. BS12 said he wanted to go when I asked him, and SS12 said no, he'd rather stay at home. The next day DH asks me for the 8th time what the kids are doing the rest of the week, and I told them that my sister was taking BS12 to the zoo with her tomorrow and then Friday since I have off of work, I'm taking both of the boys snowboarding. So DH goes into the other room with SS12 and comes back and announces that SS now wants to go to the zoo, too. I'm like, ok. So 10 minutes later, I pick up the phone to call my sister to let her know, and SS says that he changed his mind and doesn't want to go.

YES,YES,YES,YES,YES,NO: Then the next evening, I tell the boys to get their stuff ready that night for the snowboard trip the next morning, and SS12 says that he just realized that he hadn't told me yet, even though he's been meaning to the last few weeks, that he doesn't want to go snowboarding with us. So I've been talking about this trip for the last 3 weeks and even bought them brand new snowboarding pants to wear since their old ones were high-waters, and SS decides the night before not to go. So I ask him why, and he says that he doesn't want to hold us back from going up to the black diamond, and I said no problem, will stick with green and blue, not to worry about it, but he still refuses to come. He pulled this same stunt last year, but waited until the morning of to say he wasn't going and almost ruined the trip because up until that day, he'd never stayed at home alone before, and I had to call DH at work to make sure that I could leave him at the house.

Anyway, my DH starts asking me why I'm upset, and I'm like because I'm going to get blamed for not including SS like I always get blamed for, even though I can't help it if he refuses to come when he's invited. (SS just announced last weekend that he wants to go live with his mom because he doesn't get along with me because I'm grouchy to him, and that he doesn't feel like a part of my side of the family.) Well he has been invited to every single family function on my side since I married DH except for one day trip with my sister because she didn't have enough room in her car; and my dad has taken BS golfing 6 times in 4 1/2 years because he's really good and can shoot in the 80's and knows the etiquette of the course. Other than that SS has been invited and included in everything including receiving the exact same Christmas gifts and birthday presents as BS, and for every holiday. Even my granparents and my 2 aunts send cards with $ in them to both boys. Yet I'm constantly being accused of leaving SS out, and my family is always being accused of excluding SS and making him feel second-class.

NO-NO-YES: Ok, so I went off on a tangent there... Yesterday I get a call from SS while I'm working asking if he can go to softball practice that day, even though he's not signed up for softball and missed the first 2 weeks of the season. I said no because I'd asked both boys if they wanted to play this year back in February, and then again in March they both said no both times I asked. So he never brought home the paperwork that the parents needed to sign last month to register and never mentioned it again until just yesterday. SS starts arguing with me saying that he had told me that he DID want to play, and that he signed himself up last week (which was Spring Break). I told him that from now on he needs to make decisions in a timely manner, and that he better think it through before answering, because the first answer given is going to be the only answer that is considered going forward.

I just hope that he doesn't start whining to the coach and DH about how he really wanted to play and I wouldn't let him.