Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Dilemma, On the horns of


Don't you hate when God tests you?

My younger daughter just called me. Her sweet, loving ("I didn't want a relationship with you, only your father") stepmother has only gone and hired my younger daughter to work in her daycare (the very daycare said daughter was in as a preschooler whilst stepmommy "made friends" with her father who was, at the time, married to me).

They are currently on vacation (which they seem to be able to afford a lot of, while my kids struggle financially without benefit of the kind of help from THEIR father that MY father gave me and THEIR father - which he has claimed to have forgotten ever happening. THEIR father has forgotten, not MINE. Mine is dead and has either forgotten EVERYTHING or KNOWS EVERYTHING, depending on your religious beliefs. But I digress...) and it appears Stepmommy has left town before my daughter had all the proper papers to work in the day care. This morning, a government inspector dropped in and now the daycare risks a violation notation if my daughter doesn't obtain the correct paper sharpish. The inspector will be checking on it.

In a brilliant comedy twist, said daughter does not have all her papers in part because her father gave Wife #2 our other daughter's middle name when she filled out the forms, which means she originally applied for permits for a person who doesn't technically exist.

What to do, what to do? Should I forget this is the woman who, for the last two years my daughter was in the day care treated me like something the cat dragged in (if looks could kill, I'd have been gone long ago.), tried to give me marching orders with regards custody arrangements (HAHAHA! Phones can hang up rather suddenly, can't they?), slammed her front door in my face when I dropped off said daughter's medication which she'd left behind at my house (slammed it so hard my co-worker, who had driven me to the house, heard it from inside his vehicle with all the windows rolled up.), has systematically tried to destroy the girls' relationship with their father by accusing them of "trying to break us up!", and... you get the picture.

Ah, if only it wasn't causing my daughter distress.

Hmmm... WWTID?
UPDATE - Oh. I forgot to include that the name SNAFU has been rectified already by The Silly People. The only problem today is that there are documents to be picked up and they have to be picked up by D2, who does not have a vehicle. I am being asked to pick her up, take her to the cop shop for the papers, then drop her back to work, a round trip of about an hour. I have a printer's deadline to meet for a theatre program (paying gig), so I have said I'll drive her after that. Still want to know... WWTID? Also. Just how evil am I to consider not doing anything at all?
UPDATED UPDATE - They sent her in a cab. I met my deadline. All is well in Whoville.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Kat said...

Now, I may be reading this wrong, but isn't it the responsibility of the daycare as a whole and the WSM in particular to get these documents properly filled out? Legally, I mean. Let's leave personal relationships out of this for now.

So if paperwork must be done to make it all on the up-and-up, shouldn't the WSM or the daycare be responsible for shuttling D2 around to get said paperwork filled? If WSM isn't around to drive her, then shouldn't the person in charge of the daycare in her stead be driving D2 to the relevant places or, if that's not possible, be paying for her taxi trips? It is not the responsibility of any employee's mother to provide transportation if the employer needs the employee to do things related to the employee's job.

Can you imagine what would happen if the job was a government one and they tried to pull that? "Sorry, we messed up on the paperwork, you have to go to Location XYZ to pick up the new stuff, get your mother to drive you." That would fly about as far as a whale. (And I have been working government jobs for weeks without proper paperwork being filed and hence NOT BEING ABLE TO GET PAID, so I see many parallels.)

Basically, this shouldn't be your responsibility at all. Even if the WSM/daycare decided to let your daughter go because of the paperwork SNAFU, they'd still have to get the paperwork filled retroactively or potentially face legal consequences if anyone found out.

August 19, 2009 at 4:58 p.m.  
Blogger WrathofDawn said...

@ Pseudonymph - Hmm... that's a very good approach. I shall remember that and try it the next time I need to get something done PROPERLY.

@ Kat - In a word, yes. To everything you said. They finally sent her in a taxi. Oh, if only the world was as logical as you. The Silly People function at a junior high level emotionally. Everything is someone else's fault.

*sigh*

August 19, 2009 at 5:14 p.m.  
Blogger #Debi said...

Glad it got worked out without you having to get personally involved. D2's stress is relieved, she gets the life experience of having "done it myself" (sort of), and you get the satisfaction of not having helped the stepmonster. At all. Yay for loose ends tied up! :)

August 19, 2009 at 8:47 p.m.  
Blogger WrathofDawn said...

I shall do this thing!

August 19, 2009 at 10:45 p.m.  
Blogger Erin said...

Yikes. I think Kat was bang on in her analysis though.

If it's possible for winning brownie points to Heaven, then you've just earned a gazillion. Not to mention you've built A LOT of character. You're obviously the better person here. :)

August 19, 2009 at 11:39 p.m.  
Blogger Erin said...

I just assumed the Stepmother (should we really be making that a capital??) was a vapid oxygen thief.... :)

August 20, 2009 at 8:28 a.m.  
Blogger TRT said...

Glad it all got sorted, anyway.

August 21, 2009 at 6:37 a.m.  
Blogger Cooper said...

aren't relationships wonderful? what a total bitch...hell must be missing a minion...

August 21, 2009 at 4:32 p.m.  
Blogger Richard Wintle said...

This story, while nicely written, made me hyperventilate with frustration and annoyance.

Just thought you'd like to know.

/helpful (not)

September 3, 2009 at 5:23 p.m.  
Blogger WrathofDawn said...

Actually, it IS helpful. To me, although not to you.

Thanks for the moral support all!

She's not vapid, but Cooper nailed one characteristic right square on the head. But her punishment has been swift. She's married to my ex and that, I can tell your for nothing, is no picnic.

September 3, 2009 at 8:52 p.m.  

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