The Pool Issue, Revisited

Marti called his sister yesterday and she brought up that his mom wants to buy him a ticket to London (his home country) for his upcoming 40th birthday. Marti does not really want to travel with a toddler, especially to London. She won't remember a THING about it, so why take her there now? Also, why go now when every US dollar is worth like 50 cents?!?!?!

So, his sister was asking for ideas for what SHE could get him. Did he want a different trip, etc. (They really don't listen when I tell them I don't get time off for a full year on this new job, do they???? But this is not about me.)

So, he told her that he didn't want a trip, as we have nobody to watch Abby.

She asked him what he meant, that his mom could watch her.

He told me that he then insisted that she could NOT watch her, and that he's still upset about the glaring safety issue at their house, namely the lack of a full and proper pool fence.

He also told me that his mom was sitting right there - more to come on that in a second.

His sister then told him that she had no problem with her mom watching... Well, to be honest, I'm not sure exactly what she said here. Either she said she had no problem with her mom watching our daughter, or maybe she said she had no problem leaving her daughters there (one slightly older, one slightly younger), or maybe she said she had no problem going over there with her kids. Maybe she said she's fine with the (ridiculous garden) fence they put up (in part of the yard and called a pool fence). I don't know exactly because when Marti got off the phone, he said something about NOT saying that we don't have a full time nanny that would be there with the kids at his moms, like his sister's 2 girls have when they come to visit. He bit his tongue there.

But, then his sister put his mom on the phone, when apparently she was sitting there the whole time -- so she HAD to have gotten at least SOME of the gist of the conversation, but there wasn't time for his sister to tell his mom what he said yet.

He talked to his mom for a while, and he said he thinks that as soon as they got off the phone, that he's sure his sister and mom would have talked about what he had just said.

So, there it is again. Now she knows that's why we don't come to visit as much - not just suspects it. Now she knows that is why she has never been allowed to babysit Abby since she learned to crawl and outgrew the playpen.

We are supposed to go over there on Sunday for dinner.

This should be interesting.