Venting

**Note to readers: I'm not completely neurotic. I'm just drawn that way.**

Muffin's dad was over an hour late for the meet today, AND he was in the wrong place, AND he drove a pick-up truck with a half-cab in which he intended to place our daughter. BECAUSE his other daughter, the two-year-old, was already occupying the equally unsafe front passenger seat.

Ok, I know! I KNOW! When we were kids we all piled into vehicles like puppies, laying on each other (often in order to piss the other siblings off) and without seat belts. Hell, my dad used to ask us to pass him a beer from time to time on long road trips - so I KNOW all about how I shouldn't freak out.

HOWEVER, this is my child. This is my raison d'etre. She is everything to me and she is being shoved in the back of a beat-up old pick up truck (not that there's anything wrong with them) to sit side-ways in her car seat without even a shoulder harness. Oh, and this is supposed to be "OK" because her dad promises not to drive over 60mpr. ON I95?!?!? Guess what Muffin-Dad, I don't give a crap about your driving, it's the other jack-holes I'm worried about!

So... Did I mention that he was an hour late and in the wrong place? Well, it may not surprise you to learn that I was already in a bad mood by the time I discovered his treacherous mode of transportation for our daughter. Which is probably why I let him have it. In front of two little girls.

While I realize that it's patently wrong for our daughter to see us bickering, I was beyond behaving rationally. I savagely explained, in vivid detail, how completely irresponsible and recklessly selfish his behavior was. I explained, at the top of my lungs, how under no circumstances was this transportation set-up ever EVER to occur again. Furthermore, I stated that should this arrangement show itself at the next meeting he should not expect to take MY daughter home.

Of course he had excuses. A belt blew on the Taurus. His mom needed the mini-van for a funeral. To both I countered "THEN WHY DID YOU BRING THE TWO-YEAR-OLD?!?!?" Because the little girl wants to see her older sister? Or because your wife wants her out of the house for four hours? Or, and most likely, because you knew that she would occupy Muffin while you chain smoked all the way home?

I made him promise to call me as soon as they arrived. Then, I wept as I watched my daughter's head through the rear glass in that awful truck turn onto the highway, convinced that it was the last time I'd see her. I drove home in a state of high anxiety and naturally ended up having to call him three hours later to discover that everything was indeed "alright."

If the Powers That Be are handing out diplomas in "Overreacting" I'll go ahead and take mine now. No, no need to walk across the stage. Thanks anyway.