Ay yi yi...I HAVE to vent.
Oldest son (biologically his, lived with his mom in Washington and was in college when we got married) is visiting for a few days. Left his wife & daughters home and came alone.
He was telling us that his older daughter E now has a boyfriend (we saw a picture on FB of son, DIL, granddaughters and a random guy...that was him). He told us that he laid out all the rules to this kid about whether or not he could even be "friends" with E. No talking after 10 p and a whole host of other rules. Mind you, this isn't even about dating E, it's just about being friends with her, with a possibility of maybe dating later on. We thought he was kidding. Then he told us the kid called him and asked his permission to DATE E, and son gave him a whole NEW list of rules, including no canoodling, no possibility of marriage until she has graduated, no talking to any other girls if he's E's boyfriend, yadda yadda. That was when we realized he was dead serious and very proud of himself as a "good dad". Here's the kicker. She's 20 years old. She's going to a satellite branch of the UW because he can't handle the idea of her going to a school NOT named University of Washington. She's living at home to save money. She has never even gone to camp without him or DIL there as a counselor. This is the granddaughter that decided to NOT go on a cruise with us, and I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of why now.
Did I mention that he's already telling younger daughter where she can/can't go to school? The program she's interested in is not offered at the UW. But he would rather have her go out of state to school than go to the instate school where it's offered...WAZZU. He's THAT immature, and he hates WAZZU. Something he has always made cristal clear to me. When he was telling us about that part, he says "well, you should KNOW why I don't want S to go there", and I just looked him dead on and told him "No, I really don't. Why don't you tell me?". And he said, "Because it's...WAZZU..." and Lew added "and not the Udub?" Son says "exactly". Lew and I just looked at him. I finally said look, dad, you have to let go of them at some time. Don't you think S should be able to choose where she wants to go?" And he said "but she's looking at Rutgers, and some other school out east, and she's never even been there. Why would she want to go clear out there?" It was all I could do to not go get a mirror to hold up to him.
I really pity those girls - he has such an iron grip on them. E is very much a people-pleaser and daddy's girl. S is more of a rebel. I hope it works out for those girls, but I think son and S are in for some rough times - she's just 16, and a sophmore.
My mood has NOT been improved by the fact that he is very dismissive toward me, and interrupts me or ignores me when the three of us are having a conversation. I finally said I needed to go sit with my heating pad, and came upstairs. They're down there playing with the 3D printer. Is it Saturday yet?
JFC.