oh good lord
May. 1st, 2020 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via https://ift.tt/3bX0ocv
so we’re supposed to have a Zoom call at 3pm for birthday cake with a cousin who is turning 6
we made our own cake so we could participate, it’s frosted and sitting on the counter. 3pm sharp, we’re ready. Kids are pumped; they miss their cousin. Also they love cake. So excited for cake, we baked it yesterday, frosted it today. So much discussion. Big treat, can’t wait. So isolated and lonely, can’t wait for a chance to see people even if over video call. We’ve been, like, counting down to it a bit all day– “better not have too many treats now, we need to save room for cake” etc. Kids are pumped. It’s a party! Kids love parties. We have so little excitement lately. This is kind of a big deal.
and the cousin’s mom texted at 2:30. “Oh, I think we’re not gonna. Rather be low-key, just us. It’s all too much lately.”
*screaming into the void*
MathMom FLIPPED OUT, because of much much much backstory stuff underlying all this (SO MUCH backstory stuff) but also this was arranged DAYS AGO and she TOLD THE KIDS about it because why the hell wouldn’t you tell them about this? why would you keep it a secret? why would it even occur to you that this would happen? Who UN-INVITES LITTLE KIDS FROM A PARTY AT THE LAST MINUTE.
…
The freakout went over correctly; MM rarely bites back when there’s family bullshit, but this was BULLSHIT. So the Zoom call is back on.
Except that they didn’t bake their cake on time and it’s not cool and wait oh we didn’t really mean 3pm, that’s weird why would we do cake before dinner
(we have ALREADY delayed dinner for tonight predicated on the idea that the kids’d be full of cake so we’d eat a little later and push bedtime back because it’s friday and it’s okay but we need some advance notice and… wait what????)
ARGH
…
Why do you think it is I, a friend from high school, who is the only person who’s been here to help out at all?? Nobody else prioritizes MM.
I keep saying we should just cancel her family, my family’s got room, and y’know. we do. so. my mom has two more grandkids. she knows, i think; she’s written them more postcards than their four biological grandkids combined in the last month.
[Hilariously, as an aside, today Girl was looking at pictures on my phone and I showed her my niece and nephews in Maryland, and she looked at the oldest boy, a red-haired freckled skinny 12-year-old, and then squinted and looked at her brother, a red-haired freckled skinny 7-year-old, and said, “Why do they look the same?” and I laughed and laughed and told her that there isn’t really that much genetic diversity in the world, we are probably related after all. Their hair really is exactly the same shade, it’s quite funny.]
Anyway. The cousin’s dad is going to be there at 5, he says, and so he’s going to make sure they’re ready for cake at 5:30, which is copacetic with our schedule, and it will probably actually happen, because he is a decent fucking guy. (He is the only member of the family who was prepared to figure out a way to come out and help MathMom when Girl was born early and Dr. F couldn’t get time off work and MM literally could not physically carry Girl home from the hospital and I took time off work and came to help instead, because I could and because I care.
Ha, all of this is sort of making me think about– well, in fic, I always feel like I have to do a little disclaimer that fiction is fiction, and just because I like things in fic doesn’t mean I do in real life, and boy is that true– but it’s not always true, because I do like found family in real life. Quite obviously!!!
so we’re supposed to have a Zoom call at 3pm for birthday cake with a cousin who is turning 6
we made our own cake so we could participate, it’s frosted and sitting on the counter. 3pm sharp, we’re ready. Kids are pumped; they miss their cousin. Also they love cake. So excited for cake, we baked it yesterday, frosted it today. So much discussion. Big treat, can’t wait. So isolated and lonely, can’t wait for a chance to see people even if over video call. We’ve been, like, counting down to it a bit all day– “better not have too many treats now, we need to save room for cake” etc. Kids are pumped. It’s a party! Kids love parties. We have so little excitement lately. This is kind of a big deal.
and the cousin’s mom texted at 2:30. “Oh, I think we’re not gonna. Rather be low-key, just us. It’s all too much lately.”
*screaming into the void*
MathMom FLIPPED OUT, because of much much much backstory stuff underlying all this (SO MUCH backstory stuff) but also this was arranged DAYS AGO and she TOLD THE KIDS about it because why the hell wouldn’t you tell them about this? why would you keep it a secret? why would it even occur to you that this would happen? Who UN-INVITES LITTLE KIDS FROM A PARTY AT THE LAST MINUTE.
…
The freakout went over correctly; MM rarely bites back when there’s family bullshit, but this was BULLSHIT. So the Zoom call is back on.
Except that they didn’t bake their cake on time and it’s not cool and wait oh we didn’t really mean 3pm, that’s weird why would we do cake before dinner
(we have ALREADY delayed dinner for tonight predicated on the idea that the kids’d be full of cake so we’d eat a little later and push bedtime back because it’s friday and it’s okay but we need some advance notice and… wait what????)
ARGH
…
Why do you think it is I, a friend from high school, who is the only person who’s been here to help out at all?? Nobody else prioritizes MM.
I keep saying we should just cancel her family, my family’s got room, and y’know. we do. so. my mom has two more grandkids. she knows, i think; she’s written them more postcards than their four biological grandkids combined in the last month.
[Hilariously, as an aside, today Girl was looking at pictures on my phone and I showed her my niece and nephews in Maryland, and she looked at the oldest boy, a red-haired freckled skinny 12-year-old, and then squinted and looked at her brother, a red-haired freckled skinny 7-year-old, and said, “Why do they look the same?” and I laughed and laughed and told her that there isn’t really that much genetic diversity in the world, we are probably related after all. Their hair really is exactly the same shade, it’s quite funny.]
Anyway. The cousin’s dad is going to be there at 5, he says, and so he’s going to make sure they’re ready for cake at 5:30, which is copacetic with our schedule, and it will probably actually happen, because he is a decent fucking guy. (He is the only member of the family who was prepared to figure out a way to come out and help MathMom when Girl was born early and Dr. F couldn’t get time off work and MM literally could not physically carry Girl home from the hospital and I took time off work and came to help instead, because I could and because I care.
Ha, all of this is sort of making me think about– well, in fic, I always feel like I have to do a little disclaimer that fiction is fiction, and just because I like things in fic doesn’t mean I do in real life, and boy is that true– but it’s not always true, because I do like found family in real life. Quite obviously!!!
