The mother of my child has been on me for awhile now to meet her boyfriend so she can introduce him to our daughter. This 'we-get-to-meet-'em-before-they-meet-the-kid' policy was my idea and I can't tell you how happy I am that I thought of it. She has lousy taste in men and, though I used to be sure she wouldn't bring most of them around the kid, I now wonder sometimes about her judgement. Our verbal custody agreement has each of us spending every other week with our daughter and getting one day on each other's weeks to spend with her. When this agreement first kicked into effect, the weeks she wasn't with me were tough and I counted the hours til the "date" night. Now I've settled in and it's not as difficult but it's still a little trying sometimes, especially lately.
Given the kinda rough week I've had, I was looking forward to our date today. And then I was blindsided by my ex. She decided it would be a good idea for our kid, me, her and her boyfriend to have lunch together. The thinking being that he and I meet, plus he meets our daughter all in one shot. Any other day, I probably would've put up more of a fight but I just didn't have the energy today. I HATE being forced into things I don't want to do and I hate when someone keeps pestering me after I've made up my mind about something but I figured I may as well agree to this to get her off my ass. So we're all sitting at lunch, my daughter clearly not feeling the situation, and I don't know that I've ever felt more awkward. Dude speaks broken English and didn't have much to say so it was kinda quiet. My daughter stuck to me like glue the entire (painfully long) hour and he didn't really try to engage her at all. He spoke to me like he had something to prove or like he was intimidated by me in some way. More attitude-y than was necessary. The ex tried to get conversation going but he apparently wasn't interested.
I went in with an open mind, wanting to believe this dude wasn't her typical boy toy (good-looking but empty upstairs and/or an ass). But I was wrong. Same old story there always was with the guys she dates. I didn't get the chance to ask if he likes kids, but I'm thinking 'no' since he didn't even really look at mine. They've been together for some time and he's known from the start that she has a kid but it's like he thinks he can lure her away from parenthood. I definitely sensed there was something not right between her and the boyfriend though. No idea what it is but I told her after lunch that I don't want him around our kid and she, surprisingly, agreed. I think seeing how he interacted (or didn't) with our girl opened her eyes to some other stuff. I also feel like I should've spoken up about how she had us all get together but it really wasn't worth the time. I was having such a good day before lunch and since...*sigh* one of those nights, I guess. But at least now I don't have to worry that she's bringing random guys around our kid.
