I'm so happy to not see you.
Daughter had her winter concert this week. We never know if The Ex is attending these events because sometimes she says she is and doesn't show up; other times she says she can't come and then suddenly appears. Last year for parents' night at basketball, The Ex's parents came but The Ex did not; then this year for parents' night at volleyball, The Ex showed up and Ned decided he was also Daughter's parent. But anyway...
The morning of the concert, Daughter told me that she didn't know if The Ex was coming to the concert. I asked why. (I already knew; The Ex's work was having a holiday open house on the same night at Daughter's concert.) Daughter said there was something going on at The Ex's work; she also said that her sister was getting her cast that day. I pointed out that a doctor wasn't going to be putting a cast on after office hours, but I could understand if there was a work event.
That night, we're sitting in the school gym waiting for the concert to start. I saw some of Son's old friends who I hadn't seen since his graduation so I went over to say hi. One asked me if I was excited to be a grandma; I kind of shrugged and said it's happening so it is what it is, I was just happy I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night. Another asked if we had talked to Son lately; I said yes, he had stopped by our house maybe a month ago when he had come down last and stayed for about half an hour, catching up with us. They both started saying that Son is a "completely different person" when he's with Girlfriend. One commented that the night they had come over to our house earlier this year, they had never seen that side of Son before; the way he was interacting with his sisters and brother was totally different from what they were used to seeing. I said yeah, that's just the way Son is; he acts different around different people, he tells one person one thing and tells another person the complete opposite and you never know which one of the two to believe. I said that's something that Son needs to work through and figure out on his own, and unfortunately it's not anything that I can do for him; he needs to figure out who he is, and we hoped that he would sooner rather than later.
After I finished talking to Son's friends, I went back to sit by Husband. Three minutes before the concert starts, The Ex walks in with her mom. The Ex folded her arms over herself and the two of them stood blocking the entryway, vaguely looking around instead of sitting down somewhere. I told Husband she looked angry and jokingly asked what Ned had done to piss her off now (This was literally a few days after the Christmas tree incident.) Daughter walked from the opposite end of the gym to greet them; Daughter hugged The Ex, who stood there with her arms still crossed. (Okay, so she's definitely pissed but we don't know if it's at Ned or Daughter. Honestly, you just drove almost 2 hours and won't even hug your own child?) They talked for a minute and Daughter went to sit with the rest of the kids; The Ex and her mom sat down on some chairs in the front. Shortly after, Ned walked in and took what I felt was an unnecessarily long time to find where his fiancee and future mother-in-law were sitting before he joined them.
The concert was performed by the chorus and band groups, both middle school and high school. There was a total of maybe 10-12 songs and the entire concert took about one hour from start to finish. Daughter's group was in the middle; she sang her songs and they took their seats. The last group had a total of 4 songs. After the third song ended, I noticed that Ned, The Ex, and her mom all got up and walked out of the gym. I leaned over to Husband and asked/stated, "They're leaving....?" Husband said, "No way.....are you serious?" and looked over to where they had been sitting. I tried to justify it in my mind, thinking maybe they wanted to get up and use the bathroom before everybody else came out of the gym. I could understand that - they have a long drive back and probably want to get going right away so it would make sense to use the bathroom quickly, say goodbye, and then hit the road.
As the last group was performing their last song, I see Ned walk past the gym toward the exit. Then I see The Ex walk by. And finally, I see her mom walk by. I still tried to justify this, thinking they were going to wait up by the front to say goodbye to Daughter.
The concert ended, everyone started mingling, Daughter left the gym. We went out to the hallway and I looked around but didn't see Ned, The Ex, or her mom anywhere. I thought maybe they were in another part of the school, shrugged it off. We took some pictures, said goodbye to some people, got in the car and were driving to get some dinner.
We were in the car less than 2 minutes and Daughter sarcastically blurts out, "That was really nice of Mom and them to wait another 10 minutes to say 'Bye' to me." It was at this point I realized I had given The Ex entirely too much credit. She literally drove all the way down here, wouldn't hug her own daughter, watched the majority of the concert, and left early without saying goodbye.
I don't even know what is wrong with this woman.
The morning of the concert, Daughter told me that she didn't know if The Ex was coming to the concert. I asked why. (I already knew; The Ex's work was having a holiday open house on the same night at Daughter's concert.) Daughter said there was something going on at The Ex's work; she also said that her sister was getting her cast that day. I pointed out that a doctor wasn't going to be putting a cast on after office hours, but I could understand if there was a work event.
That night, we're sitting in the school gym waiting for the concert to start. I saw some of Son's old friends who I hadn't seen since his graduation so I went over to say hi. One asked me if I was excited to be a grandma; I kind of shrugged and said it's happening so it is what it is, I was just happy I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night. Another asked if we had talked to Son lately; I said yes, he had stopped by our house maybe a month ago when he had come down last and stayed for about half an hour, catching up with us. They both started saying that Son is a "completely different person" when he's with Girlfriend. One commented that the night they had come over to our house earlier this year, they had never seen that side of Son before; the way he was interacting with his sisters and brother was totally different from what they were used to seeing. I said yeah, that's just the way Son is; he acts different around different people, he tells one person one thing and tells another person the complete opposite and you never know which one of the two to believe. I said that's something that Son needs to work through and figure out on his own, and unfortunately it's not anything that I can do for him; he needs to figure out who he is, and we hoped that he would sooner rather than later.
After I finished talking to Son's friends, I went back to sit by Husband. Three minutes before the concert starts, The Ex walks in with her mom. The Ex folded her arms over herself and the two of them stood blocking the entryway, vaguely looking around instead of sitting down somewhere. I told Husband she looked angry and jokingly asked what Ned had done to piss her off now (This was literally a few days after the Christmas tree incident.) Daughter walked from the opposite end of the gym to greet them; Daughter hugged The Ex, who stood there with her arms still crossed. (Okay, so she's definitely pissed but we don't know if it's at Ned or Daughter. Honestly, you just drove almost 2 hours and won't even hug your own child?) They talked for a minute and Daughter went to sit with the rest of the kids; The Ex and her mom sat down on some chairs in the front. Shortly after, Ned walked in and took what I felt was an unnecessarily long time to find where his fiancee and future mother-in-law were sitting before he joined them.
The concert was performed by the chorus and band groups, both middle school and high school. There was a total of maybe 10-12 songs and the entire concert took about one hour from start to finish. Daughter's group was in the middle; she sang her songs and they took their seats. The last group had a total of 4 songs. After the third song ended, I noticed that Ned, The Ex, and her mom all got up and walked out of the gym. I leaned over to Husband and asked/stated, "They're leaving....?" Husband said, "No way.....are you serious?" and looked over to where they had been sitting. I tried to justify it in my mind, thinking maybe they wanted to get up and use the bathroom before everybody else came out of the gym. I could understand that - they have a long drive back and probably want to get going right away so it would make sense to use the bathroom quickly, say goodbye, and then hit the road.
As the last group was performing their last song, I see Ned walk past the gym toward the exit. Then I see The Ex walk by. And finally, I see her mom walk by. I still tried to justify this, thinking they were going to wait up by the front to say goodbye to Daughter.
The concert ended, everyone started mingling, Daughter left the gym. We went out to the hallway and I looked around but didn't see Ned, The Ex, or her mom anywhere. I thought maybe they were in another part of the school, shrugged it off. We took some pictures, said goodbye to some people, got in the car and were driving to get some dinner.
We were in the car less than 2 minutes and Daughter sarcastically blurts out, "That was really nice of Mom and them to wait another 10 minutes to say 'Bye' to me." It was at this point I realized I had given The Ex entirely too much credit. She literally drove all the way down here, wouldn't hug her own daughter, watched the majority of the concert, and left early without saying goodbye.
I don't even know what is wrong with this woman.
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