Built On Trust

We're Trying Our Best

"Hi, baby!" Brad picks up Shay as she runs up to him. The girls have spent the last 2 days with my mom.

"Daddy!!!" She yells excitedly wrapping her arms around his neck. My mom walks up behind her with Aly and Jess next to her.

"Can I talk to you two?" She asks Brad and I. He puts Shay down, and we quickly give the girls their presents and follow my mom into the other room.

"What's up?" I ask as we sit on the couch across from her "Did they do something?"

"Yeah," She thinks about it for a while "There were actually a few things, but they were mostly because of you two..."

"Because of us?" Brad asks confused "Did they miss us?"

"Well, yeah, they did, but that's not really it. It's more of what you guys let them do." She looks over at us with a face that I know too well. She's ready to scold, and I don't really want that from her now.

"You guys must just put them in front of the TV all day because that's all they did here." She takes a moment to let us think about it as well "I went to put them to bed, and they all told me you guys just let them watch TV, then I took their little screen thingies away and they screamed forever because they couldn't play on them. You guys need to be playing with them more."

Brad can see that I'm mad about this, mostly because we both know she's overreacting, and tries to stop me, but I get up to confront her anyway.

"You think we just let them sit there all day? If that's what we do then why do we have a pool? Or all their outside toys? Or even the freaking room filled with their stuff? Just for decoration?"

"It seems like it!" She yells back cutting me off "You two need to step up and actually take the responsibility of being parents for once before you mess up your kids too much."

"Have you ever thought of us giving them the tablets to help you?" Brad speaks up this time "Maybe we thought that they would give you a break when you needed it, and maybe, just maybe, there are times at home when we let them watch TV to fall asleep because we wanna lay in bed with them!"

"And just so you know, we do let them play on them at home. They have games on them that help them learn while we're busy cleaning or making dinner, so whether you like it or not it is helping them." I add, getting pissed off "We spend plenty of time with them during the day, and at night when they decide they aren't going to sleep. Sometimes they act different when they aren't at home."

"They wouldn't act different if they knew who they were with! You guys never bring them over to me!" She fights back unimpressed with what we've had to say "But you must not understand that anyway. You can't be too smart if you stayed with someone who basically slept with someone else." She laughs knowing that those last few words went right through me.

I look over at Brad, ready to flip. It's bad enough that she has the nerve to insult our parenting when she doesn't know everything, but to bring up something that happened years ago that she really doesn't know much about is a whole different story.

Brad tries to pull me back down onto the couch once I'm standing up, but fails, and sits there as I tell her everything I've been holding back.

"You have no idea what the hell you're even talking about! You don't know much of what happened because I could NEVER trust you to tell you everything because your mouth runs with everything! Maybe if we weren't scared of you going and telling some tabloid everything that we do or say we would invite you to more, and do more with you! I would love for my kids to be able to spend time with their grandma, but all you ever do is complain! Why would want them around that when they have 4 other grandparents that seem to care a hell of a lot more about them!"

I turn to Brad, tears falling freely, and collapse into his arms where he is standing beside me. He kisses my forehead and mumbles for me to go out to the car so that the girls don't see. I do as I'm told, and a few minutes later he walks out with the girls putting them in their seats. My mom is standing at the door crying as well, and I know that it hurt her just as much as it did me, but after hearing what she had to say I feel no need to apologize.

"Night, Shay," I kiss her forehead as I pull the blankets up over her "I love you so much." She gives me a slight hug and before I know it is falling asleep. I turn out her light and let her door open a little. Brad is still in with the twins when I'm done with Shay, so I join him hoping to get them to sleep faster.

"Momma?" Jess calls me closer to her bed where Aly is squeezed in with her "You read?"

I walk over and Brad hands me the book that they picked out for me to read. He makes some room for me, and I sit next to him where we take turns reading to them until they're both asleep. We walk out of their room quietly and make out way to our room, where we get into bed silently. I don't want to bring it up again, but I'm still upset about what happened earlier, and I know that he knows.

"Hey babe," He pulls me closer to him "Don't listen to her. You're an amazing mother doing the best that you can."