Sometimes I fall under the false impression that things are getting better... that is usually when all hell breaks loose. That is what happened recently... my husband was laid off for the second time in less than 6 months. We had no warning and they gave him no severence and we lossed insurance the day they let him go. We were still recovering from the last time and had no reserves, not even food. That night my son came down with croup, and I had to take him to the doctor. It has been two weeks, we are doing our best to stay hopeful, but things are not getting better. Then yesterday we had a lady from child protective services show up at our house. It seems the "witch" (my husbands ex) will stop at nothing to make sure the kids do not have to come to our house. She is under the false impression that she can make a report and then they will take away his visitation. STUPID, STUPID, witch! Although I have to say, we were not surprised, it is so like her! So she told them that I am mean to the kids and that we are not fair to them. You see, the kids do not have any responsibilities at her house, NONE. She is a stay at home mom, most of the time, and she does everything for them. The oldest, who is 13, does not even have to clean his own room, or even put away his own clothes. He has everything handed to him and has a huge feeling of entitlement. He thinks he should have everything he wants, without any effort on his part. That is the kind of parent she is, she has taught them that. So no big surprise that he hates coming to our house where he has responsibility and he has to work for his rewards. Since we have 6 kids, and we try to keep everything fair, we do not spend a lot of money on extra stuff for the kids. But we do many activities together as a family, we do have a lot of fun, sometimes. But he does not like the way I run things. It is not as bad as he thinks it is, it could be much worse. I require that they put away their own clothes, clean and dirty. And then they have one family job that they have to do. EVERYBODY DOES! We all have a job and we try to hurry and get them done ASAP, so that we have the rest of the weekend to play. I am very busy and sometimes the weekend is the only time I have to do some good cleaning. I do not think it is fair if we all have to clean the house and they just get to sit and watch. And really every job and rule his kids have is for a reason. Case in point, the reason they have a job is for several reasons... first, they come and make a huge mess. We would spend all week trying to keep the house clean and they would come like a huge tornado and then leave. They did not care if it was a mess, they were leaving for two weeks and they knew we would have to clean it up. Second, I feel like they need to learn responsiblility. I have to try and teach them something in the time they are with us. Third, we have always tried to teach the kids that they are not guest in our home, they are part of our family. Family works together and plays together. Forth, my kids did not feel it was fair, they were always left with the mess to clean up. It was causing problems between them. Etc.

Well, we explained our side of the story to the case worker, she kind of laughed and left. So overall I do not think it is a big deal, but it is not a fun position to be in.