Mr. Control Freak

My kids live with their father, my ex-husband, which is a long and painful story. They moved in with him last July. (This is just background - not rehash, I swear.)

Last week, my son was at Scout Camp. As sometimes happens when you combine boys, outdoors and nighttime, he got hurt. He fell while playing some game in the dark (details are very sketchy here, I can't get a straight story out of him) and cut open his knee. He was taken to the Emergency Room and got 5 stitches. This is not the problem.

He needed to leave the stitches in for a week and a half before having them removed. This is also not the problem.

I picked up my son a week ago on Saturday. So, he is with me this week, the week that he needs to get the stitches out. This is the problem, because it gave Mr. Control Freak ex an excuse to be his control freaky self all over me. Now the kids live with him, he is so "concerned" all the time about what is going on when they are with me. As should be obvious, stitches provide an excellent reason to be "concerned."

First of all, the ex says that "he has a call into the doctor's office to get an appointment for the stitches," and "am I going to take care of this." Now, of course, the ex is not volunteering to provide transportation, which is not trivial since I live 45 minutes to an hour away, depending on traffic. No, the ex is just going to get the appointment, and then it will be up to me to do two hours of driving for what will be a 5 minute procedure. Tops. Since the kids have Kaiser, my son does not have to go to the office near where my ex lives. No, he could go to the office near where I live. The ex, being the kind and considerate soul that he is, has not called the office that is conveniently close to me. No. But he is "concerned."

Not wanting to get somehow maneuvered into the above ridiculous amount of driving, I tell the ex that if he wants to take care of it he can, but he must provide the transportation. Otherwise, I will call, make the appointment, and get the stitches taken out.

This is apparently not good enough. So, I repeat the above statement that he can take care of it if he wants to, 3 or 4 (or maybe 10) times, with the end result that I am the one who will take care of it. I knew that this is what would happen, as the ex won't put himself out more than he must. However, it's ok to make some arrangement that entails me driving for 2 hours. That is not a problem.

Now, this whole week, the ex is calling every day to find out what's going on. After all, he is "concerned." And, we must go through the whole stupid dance about who is going to take care of it. The ex doesn't want to do it, he just wants me to do it "his" way.

Thankfully, this saga is coming to an end, as I took my son to the clinic this morning and had the stitches removed. My son is fine, the wound healed nicely. The only one who might not be fine is the ex.