Em and the Possibilities There are no guarantees in life…only the possibilities

Subtitled: The Hazards of being married to (A Man Like That)

Last night I got a phone call. The teen on the phone spewed a lot of upset words at me, so I did what any reasonable parent would do – I went to pick up my daughter (and friend) and Get To The Bottom Of This. As best as I can make out:

(A Man Like That)s daughter was at the same youth gathering as mine.

Someone called (A Man Like That) and let him know that his daughter was hugging and kissing on a boy – someone that he’d already “run off” once. (A Man Like That) immediately went into full-on OverProtectiveDad mode and ranted through the house, scaring his Boy Child. Words like “shotgun” and “going over there” tend to scare children, you know. Boychild called his Mama and said as much. Mama told her boss “I need to go get this taken care of.” and boss replied “If you leave, you’re fired.” So what does she do?

She walked off the job.

She went to the place of gathering, grabbed her teen, walked over and cussed my teen for making the phone call.

They then called me on the way home – the phonecall at the top of this post. The one spewing a lot of upset words at me. Once they got home, they checked the caller ID. Since my daughter has called them from that number before, the assumption is that she made the call (it’s a “friend’s” cellphone). They called me again after checking the caller ID, to let me know that it’s all my daughter’s fault. I got a THIRD phone call this morning, reiterating that the phone call was all her fault, that they were laughing about the whole thing, and my FAVORITE part: “If it were MY daughter, I’d sit her down and make her understand that somebody got fired because of her bullshit phone call! We’re going to lose our house, our cars, EVERYTHING.”

Yes, you read that right: It’s my daughter’s fault. I’m just as slack-jawed and dumbstruck with amazement as you are. I’m not exactly sure WHEN her husband’s foul temper and inability to control himself became our problem but apparently it is – along with her willingness to walk off the job.

I’ve been sitting here for I can’t tell you HOW long trying to process this episode of dramatics.

Given their reactions thus far, I don’t see telling her that their (over)reaction to what amounts to a prank phone call is not my responsibility going over well. To be honest, I don’t expect them to understand it at all.

Obviously, we won’t be going back to this particular gathering place for a long long time – if at all. It’s something I’ve been working toward for a while – I’ve been telling my daughter that we need to find Alternate Activities for months. Now’s a great time to start that.