Shortly after I had come into the girls’ lives, a school event came about. This was a “build with dad” workshop type thing, where kids could come in with a father figure and built a wooden airplane. Dad had previously taken Natalie when she was a year or two younger, so he felt it was a good time to take Zoe for some one on one time. It was a fairly quick event, so we thought nothing of it. He take Zoe and I stay home with Natalie.
So with that, he left with Zoe and I was home with Natalie. Natalie played games and did a puzzle. We watched a little bit of TV and had a snack. It was a fun couple hours together. Honestly, I don’t even think it was more than an hour and a half that they were gone.
The next day after school, DB was scheduled to pick up the kids at 5:30pm. She showed up and came into the garage, and the second that Dad stepped foot into the garage, she started screaming. She was throwing a tantrum that he left Natalie home with me when she should have been dropped off with her for that time. She then turned to Natalie and in her loud, angry voice, asked her “Who would you rather have been with? Your mom or her?” Natalie obviously said her mom, because let’s be honest, what kid wouldn’t in a situation like that. She was being forced to choose who she would have rather stayed with for literally a little over an hour. She was put between choosing her mom and dad in that moment.
DB continued to yell at Dad, telling him that if he ever goes anywhere, that she better be notified and given the chance to take the kids for that time. He explained to her (in a calm manner, as usual) that they have a 24 right of refusal, so if he were ever to be gone for 24 hours or more, he would definitely reach out to her and see if she wanted to take the kids, but in this situation, where he was only gone for a short time, he would always choose to have someone watch them at home. She continue to yell for a short time before Natalie finally just said “mom, let’s just go.” and so they did…