fruit baskets

[Guest guest]

I have to share this one with people who will get it, and might even have a good

laugh.

So, I've been NC with nada and (dishrag) dad for over a year. I have two kids,

and my nada keeps trying all sorts of strange ways to get some sort of contact

from them. My kids now understand why we are NC (my parents hurt us financially

last year and cut off payment for my daughter's school tuition because we were

going to shorten our visit to them by half a day - some of you may remember the

story).

Anyhow, my oldest daughter just celebrated her 10th birthday! A few weeks

before her birthday, my dad (who does ALL nada's dirty work) emailed me saying

" they would like to re-establish a relationship " with me. Well, being NC, I

didn't respond. He then started emailing me asking me what he could do to make

my daughter's birthday " special " . OH, the responses I wanted to send were WAY

too numerous and humorous, but following the NC rule, I didn't respond. Another

email, asking what my daughter wanted for her birthday and stating " We are also

eager to hear your suggestions as to how we might go about resuming our

relationship. " After talking it over with my therapist, I decided I was strong

enough to send them a 1-sentence reply: " Sorry, I am not ready to re-establish a

relationship at this time. " End of discussion.

So, on my daughter's 10th birthday, a large fruit basket was delivered to my

house. My daughter was all excited because it had a " happy birthday " balloon

attached to it. When we opened the card and discovered it was from my parents,

it was too late to throw it in the trash (she was already eating an apple). So

naturally, my daughter knows that when someone sends you a gift, you send them a

thank-you note. So she sent them a very nice, very benign thank you note, and

that was it.

Think the story ends there? Of course not!

My other daughter just started 2nd grade last week. On the second day of

school, her teacher calls me (right after school) to tell me that " a lovely and

very large fruit basket " was delivered to the school for my daughter and was

sitting in the school office! The card says it is from her grandparents and

that she is supposed to share it with her class. It also has a very large

balloon attached to it that says " miss you " . The teacher was a bit puzzled and

asked if she should cut up the fruit and make a fruit salad? After I briefly

explained to her the in-appropriateness of the gift, and that there were some

issues with my parents, I quickly drove over to the school and picked the damn

thing up. My daughter never saw it (she was at her friends' house when it was

delivered after school). After contemplating the idea of letting the fruit rot

for a few weeks, then shipping it back to nada in a box, I ended up anonymously

leaving the fruit back to the staff lounge at my daughter's school the next day.

I hope they enjoyed it. No thank you note this time.

Who the heck sends a 10-year-old a fruit basket for their birthday???? And who

the f#@* sends a 7 year old a fruit basket at school????

Nadas do, of course :-)

*sigh*

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