My Life According To Me

You know it's really pathetic when you actually think it would be a good thing to not see your skids. Right now, we're having one of those moments with DH and I. We're both really wondering why we're fighting keeping the skids here so hard, when everything we've done is not good enough, not enough, or just wrong in their eyes. We had the kids here for two weeks in June and we made a point of making sure that the kids could go with the youth group out of town. They went and had so much fun it was all they could talk about. But this is the youth group that we supposedly "force" them to attend. Fast forward to this week, and it's the annual basketball camp put on by the HS here. Again, we make sure that the kids have the chance to go. We do the right thing even though our budget is about blown with all the medical bills that have been building up around here with the kids issues. They go, they love it, it's all they can talk about at night. Do we get a thank you? Do we get any kind of acknowledgement that they appreciate the sacrifice? Nope. Okay, so we're parents and their kids and it's part of the immaturity. Still... after all the crap we've been dragged through this year with the ex and the kids accusations that we're abusive and mean, isn't it about time that they actually recognize that we do these things for them??? Nope, too much to ask of kids who have been so brainwashed by their mother that they think that any kind of discipline is abuse. Yeah, the same mother who is a 8 time convicted drug addict. Yeah, she's just the kind of person who you want raising kids. Personally... I'm just done with them. I'm tired of the two faced, endless whining and demands that they make. I'm tired of having my character smeared by people who have never actually spent more than 30 seconds in the same room or vicinity with me. If I didn't love my DH so much I'd have left a long time ago. This is just too much to ask of anyone.
So we get the kids home today after camp, and DH has left them instructions to do their weekly chores. Now we're just so mean and overbearing around here that we are task masters and insist that the kids actually contribute to the house by doing chores. We assign each of them a room to clean once a week. Horrible child labor huh? So the 14 yo is assigned the kitchen, that she never bothered to clean last week, so DH has said she must do it this week. Do we get any kind of cooperation? Nope, all we get is deep sighs, whining, complaints about every ache and pain she could possibly have. Drama, drama, drama. The 12 yo is assigned the bathroom. I have never seen anyone who could take as long to clean as he does and not make any kind of cleaning motions at all. Then when you ask him what he's doing he says "cleaning!" So I go check on him and find him "investigating" my bedroom again. Just makes me want to scream. The funny part, the 10 yo is the one who stomped around going "FINE! I'll do it then!" and then got right to work and finished everything with only 2 reminders to check his list. This is the kid who has all the social and ADHD/ODD issues. More and more I wonder how much of his issues are because of his ADHD/ODD and how much of it is because of his brother's projection of his issues onto the 10yo.
Ah well... such is the life... and so the stomach churns in yet another day in this wicked, evil, stepmother's life.