My son's father and I are divorced. My ex still an active dub. My son (age 13) asked me if he could go to the movies last Friday with some of his friends from school and a parent of one of his friends was going with the group. They were going to see The Grudge 2. I looked to see what it was rated, PG-13, so I said ok. I dropped him off and he called me when the movie was over.
Long and behold, a couple that goes to my son's hall sees him going into The Grudge. They wasted NO TIME in calling my ex THAT NIGHT and reporting their findings. My ex left a semi-nasty message on my son's phone telling him that he knows what movie he went to see and that he will be grouded when he goes to his dads. Why do they have to be so nosey and get my son into trouble????
A little background: My son went to go live with his dad last year. He had been going through this phase for about 3 years when everytime he was mad at me or didn't like my house rules he would say "I want to live with my dad!" His dad took me to court 2 years ago to try and get custody of him but my son ended up telling the judge that he was just mad at me and that he wanted to stay with me. I was relieved, and a little upset with him because that cost me about $900 in attorney fees - which I had to put on my credit card because as a single mom, I didn't have the extra $$$ laying around. Last year he pulled the same stunt with me again and this time I just said "You want to live with your dad? Then you can". I didn't have the money for the attorney again as I was still paying off the attorney fees from the previous year. We now have a shared parenting arrangement which works out fine, we live about 10 minutes from each other. He doesn't pay me child support and I don't pay him any either.
My son is now seeing that living with his dad was a mistake. He admitted to me that he is miserable. I told him that I just want him to have a "normal" childhood - something that I NEVER had. I told him that going to movies with his friends is NORMAL. I told him to not let his dad and step-mom pressure him into getting baptized, especially if he is not sure he wants to be a dub for the rest of his life. He will be 14 in December and I think thats about the time that the pressure hits for getting baptized. I cried and cried last night for my son - I feel so terrible that he is going to get into trouble for something that is a normal part of growing up. I guess the good thing is that he is having doubts now about wanting to be a dub.