Real Life

Like a lot of people, I like to escape from real life to movies, books, games, digital art, internet... Nothing wrong with it - it's a need!  And the caveat to that is: everything in moderation, LOL.  Not good to wake up someday and find that you haven't showered in a month and your bills are all late, the cat has eaten the dog while it was sleeping, and your fish are all floaters, hee hee.

There has been a lot that I would like to escape from these last couple of weeks, but unfortunately I haven't had time.  Real life has reared it's ugly head to an alarming degree.  This past weekend my stepdaughter's husband cleaned out their house and took their twin boys (not 2 yet) and their daughter (not quite 3) with the aid of his parents while she was busy arranging a birthday party for her 5 year old.  He told her (LIE) he would have his mom take care of the little ones since she was busy with the party and he'd have her bring them to the party since he had to work...nice.

So, why did he do it?  He was following up on a threat.  The week before, while at his parents house, his best buddy was wrestling with the 5 & 7 yr old boys and accidentally got 'nutted' by the 5 yr old.  It's a risk when wrestling with little kids, obviously, but he got mad.  He picked up the boy by the neck, threw him down and then shoved him across the floor and stepdad did nothing.  In fact he thought it was funny - until Mandy told him she was filing a report against the guy.  Then he threatened to take the kids (just the three that are his) if she did.

So, now she's fighting to get her kids back.  Something I've never understood: a good parent takes kids away from a bad parent (abusive,drunk/drugs,etc.) to protect them and the good parent gets in trouble.  A bad parent takes children away from a good parent for spite or some other reason and nothing happens to them.  Ok, so this may not be true most of the time - I don't know the statistics on that - but I think everyone would admit that change is needed.  I know that a large number of child abductions are carried out by a family member, and the current process is get a lawyer and file for temporary custody.  Yeah, and while you do that, your child is gone, getting farther away, & you don't know where they are.  If you come home one day to find your house empty, your spouse gone, your kids don't come home from school, and your spouse is not answering their cell phone, you should be able to file a police report immediately for parental abduction, shouldn't you?  I don't know about anywhere else, but around here it's not like that - you have to be awarded temporary custody first, only then will they listen to anything else - "he/she is a parent too, they haven't broken any law" is the customary response...These are my personal thoughts and observations - if  I am wrong, I am sure I will hear about it.  People are notoriously quiet unless there are mistakes to be pointed out...

On a more positive note; after saving & working for enough money, Tucker has gotten his Bearded Dragon!  She is so cute!  He has named her Skittles, and she is 2 months old. We didn't get any sleep at all that first night because he was up watching her and worrying over her..."Mom, her eyes are closed." Me: "She's sleeping." Him: "Are you sure?" and then I went in & checked her: "See? She's just sleeping."  A little while later..."Mom? She's still in the same spot & it doesn't look like she's breathing." ... and on it went.  Just in case anyone out there is interested, when they are asleep, you don't really see their sides move much - not like when they are awake. I will have pictures up soon  :)