Cappy

My son is the "Daddy" and his live in girlfriend is "Mommy" to a little boy who turns one soon. "Mommy" fired me from babysitting to help them save on the cost of daycare one day a week.

Why? One time she witnessed me get into a shouting match with another of my grown kids....with no young children present. "Mommy" has decided I'm unstable because I went thru a recent divorce (due to my ex's infidelity)...partly what stressed me out to begin with, so I'm banned from even seeing this grandchild.

But "Mommy" doesn't stop there. Every time I see my son & his other child from another mother, "Mommy" texts me belligerent messages to remind me that I'll never see HER son again. I resorted to having my cell phone provider block her number because of the way she's tormented and harrassed me.

I worked things out between the "Daddy" and I, but "Mommy" refuses to budge. Won't accept a handwritten apology and holds tightly to her stance that I'm never seeing this child again. She says my apology meant nothing to her and further chastized me via text because I made no attempt in 3 months to see grandson. Why would I when I've been told I'll never see him?

I have no use for her or her drama. I've accepted that life goes on and I have no desire to subject myself to more of her abusive behavior.

After 6 months of severed relations between her, the child and myself, I get an invitation to his birthday party.

Can anyone give me one good reason why I should go?

What would you do, how would you feel if your dad, (divroced from your mom for 12 years) was dating your mom's brother's ex-wife (divorced for 3 months)?

They think its ok because they aren't blood relatives.

What do you think?

I bought 2 tickets for reserved seats to a sports event for boyfriend's birthday, which cost $140 each. One for me, one for him. He paid me $100 towards his ticket....allowing the balance to be his bday gift from me. But it turns out the guy is a complete narcissist and I'm about to break it off with him.

What do I do about these tickets?

Randy and Mary are brother and sister.

Gene was married to Mary and have divorced for 12 years. Their kids are now in their late 20s.

I am divorcing Randy. Our kids are also in their late 20s.

Gene and I bumped into each other recently and have gone out a few times. We have a good time together and are starting to develop feelings for each other but are concerned what our kids are going to think. Our kids are cousins.

Gene and I are not blood relations, but if we got married our kids would be cousins and step-siblings.

Is that too wierd for us to be involved with one another?

Gave a sizable CASH retainer to a lawyer #1 who seemed like a stand-up guy, who never gave me a receipt for the money. He drew up and filed 1 paper, claims to have filed 2 papers and appeared in court once, but have no record of any of that. His services were terminated 2 weeks later and another attorney was retained. Lawyer one, using up only a small fraction of retainer fee, has yet to refund the balance of the retainer fee, saying he's behind on his billing. Months have gone by and still no refund.

What recourse do I have to collect unused portion of retainer?

I purchased jquery slideshow code hoping to just insert the script and code files to my web folder and change the name of the sample images to the names of my own. Instead its a bit more complex than I counted on.

The slideshow isn't appearing, only the thumbnails in vertical left aligned fashion down the page....not suppose to happen.

There is one section in the instructions that I don't understand. Can someone help explain what this sentence means?

Create Slider object by invoke "new Slider(options);".

I adopted two gerbils that were kept in the same tank. Thought both were female. Turns out that wasn't the case and they had 4 babies. All died within two days. Some people have suggested the mother's diet was inadequate. Could it also be due to the fact that these two might be related?

My husband and I, (age 50) have 2 days to spend in Denver area and would like some recommendations on how to best use them. We've seen the Rocky Mountain State Park and Estes Park so we've been there, done that already and would like to try something new. We enjoy browsing stores, specialty shops and galleries and would also be open to other suggestions. Not interested in touring breweries or sports stadiums, but perhaps a conservatory or the zoo.

Does anyone have any recommendations about areas to visit, places to stay, things to do in or around Denver?

Guess who's coming to Christmas? The spouse of one of our adult kids, who is a perpetual pain in the rear....makes rude & nasty comments, plays mean-spirited mind games, steals things from our home, and shows blatant disrespect to anyone and everyone in our family. Due to this behavior, our relationship with our own adult child is nearly destroyed because love is blind and they refuse to see what they've married. Holiday gatherings are the only time we see this adult child and grandchildren.

All through their marriage we've kept our mouths shut to keep the peace, but its only gotten us more of the same and we now realize we've allowed ourselves to be mistreated.

So this holiday, we'd like to have some ideas in place so when things turn sour, we can remove this person from our home.

I'd like to hear from others who've had similar situations. What have you done to handle inlaws of this kind? Have you ever asked them to leave? Called them a taxi? Called the police?

What has worked for you?

A very close relative has been married for 5 years and has one child from that marriage. My relative's spouse has caused emotional, mental and financial damage to my loved one and now has committed adultery besides with my loved one's friend. My relative found out about it and is crushed, but chose to stay and work things out with the wayward spouse. My relative has never talked to me about these marriage problems but its came to my attention through a very reliable source. My relative is going through all this alone, too ashamed to admit the state of things.

Do I tell my relative that I know it all and offer my emotional support? If I do this, will this only increase the feelings of humiliation and embarrassment my relative already feels?

Do I mind my own business and hope my relative wakes up one day and sees the light?

Do I have any other choices?

Friend turns out to be a black hole of need who incessantly takes advantage of my skills, knowledge and talents. Once I start to back off, I get bombarded with phone calls, voice messages, text messages, emails and stalked on facebook. I tell the person I'm busy and not available but they persist and its smothering and bothersome. Is it possible to politely tell them to leave you alone? If so how?

We started socializing a few years ago with another couple who we seemed compatible with. We'd get together one time at their house and the next time at ours. We often invited them to dinner, but we never are invited to dinner at their house. We possess career skills that are beneficial to them and little by little they started asking us to do small favors for them, which was fine. But a pattern has now emerged and we clearly see that we are "givers" and they are "takers", who continually try to enlist our help. Recently we've started to withdraw and be less and less available. Feeling they are losing us, they've started aggressively pursuing us trying to hook us back in. In the last two days there have been numerous voice and emails, and we've not responded to any of them.

Is there a way to TACTFULLY tell these people that we enjoy their company, but we no longer want to keep doing favors for them because we feel its developed into a one-sided relationship?

I'm looking for healthy mature tactful answers only - please!

We started socializing a few years ago with another couple who we seemed compatible with. We'd get together one time at their house and the next time at ours. We often invited them to dinner, but we never are invited to dinner at their house. We possess career skills that are beneficial to them and little by little they started asking us to do small favors for them, which was fine. But a pattern has now emerged and we clearly see that we are "givers" and they are "takers", who continually try to enlist our help. Recently we've started to withdraw and be less and less available. Feeling they are losing us, they've started aggressively pursuing us trying to hook us back in. In the last two days there have been numerous voice and emails, and we've not responded to any of them.

Is there a way to TACTFULLY tell these people that we enjoy their company, but we no longer want to keep doing favors for them because we feel its developed into a one-sided relationship?

I'm looking for healthy mature tactful answers only - please!

My husband and I are thinking of becoming foster parents. Has anyone else done this that could tell us how to go about it? What are the requirements for having a foster child as far as housing needs and otherwise? I know we could pass background checks so that is not an issue.

What's a good gift to buy a married son, something that is just for him?

The friend of a friend asked me to build a website for her homebased company. I did so. I have not seen nor heard a word from her since sending her an invoice 3 months ago.

Should I

1. Call and ask if she rec'd the invoice?

2. Send a second request?

3. Disassemble the website for non -payment?

4. Chalk it up as a lesson learned?

5. Other?

A female inlaw of mine is extremely narcissistic and over the past two years has been verbally abusive towards me and instigates drama after drama, to the point her husband our blood relative has been brainwashed that its me and not her. I've not once retaliated in kind to her antics and instead have tried to be very forgiving and still include them in our lives for the sake of the children.

We've invited them to spend Christmas Eve with us. Neither of them have talked to me in 4 months due to blowups she's instigated over the summer. Her husband has defended her to the end, totally brainwashed. He behaves as a coward and uses email and text messaging to mistreat us instead of saying these things to us in person or on the phone.

We've decided the only way to communicate with them is on the phone or in person and are trying to stop all communication with them that is done via text or email....for our own well-being. Now they've managed to forget the time we told them to come over for Christmas Eve so she sent a text to ask what time to arrive and what to bring. When I try to call back with the info, neither one answers the phone. Knowing they'll see they had a missed call from me, I left no message, hoping they'll call and finally have a personal conversation before coming into my home. So far, no call.

Is it too much to expect that a person who's been invited into your home on Christmas be willing to have a brief yet personal phone conversation with you to discuss the Christmas holiday details?

Or do I just continue playing the game, giving her the control again in every situation.

Tired of being a scapegoat and doormat. Why does everything always have to be done her way or no way at all?

We have 2 younger family members who are extremely difficult to get along with and due to their past abusive words and actions, our relationship with them is very strained. We're hosting Christmas at our home and all family is invited, including these two family members.

My husband invited all family via phone conversation. One of the difficult ones sent me a text message a week later to ask what to bring - this person has refused to speak to me or acknowledge my phone calls or voice messages for 4 months.

My husband does not want me to respond to any text messages or email messages by these difficult family members because they've used text and email messages to abuse us in the past, freely composing abusive messages that they'd find harder to say over the phone or face to face.

So, DH wants me to limit communication with them to conversations over the phone or in person.

So today I tried to call this family member in response to their text. As usual they don't answer the phone. I left no voice mail, I just hung up. They will see a missed call from me on their phone and can call me back - or not. Most likely they'll continue their recent triangulating behaviors and obtain the info from someone else in the family, sidestepping talking to me altogether.

DH does not feel it Is unreasonable for us to expect to have a personal conversation with a person who's been invited into our home for Christmas.

Others have said I'm being prideful for not just sending a text message response. Another said we are causing even worse damage to the relationship by not responding via text message.

I'd like to hear others opinions.

My DH says texts are too impersonal and since these people haven't given us the time of day for 4 months, excluding us from their gatherings etc, that we are not being unreasonable for wanting some personal communication with them before they enter our home on Christmas.

in the last ten years there was a song, the lyrics were about someone being a little kid and it talks about their parents fighting and broken promises etc. Anyone remember the name of it?

After 3 years of training, I'll soon be starting a temp job in a career that I love with the potential to be hired permanent. This job is several hours from where I live, in an area that I hope to move to in the near future. I am excited about this opportunity and want to go and do the best job I can.

In the past I have fallen into bad habits at work and I want to learn how to avoid those with this new job.

1, How do you graciously bow out of office gossip about others?

2. How do you graciously avoid answering personal questions which you feel is nobody else's business?

Please give examples of appropriate responses.