Everyone in the house has been having a tough time sleeping lately. I toss and turn a lot, everyone else finds themselves waking up around 3am or 4am like clockwork. S.O. and my oldest daughter seem to have it worse than anyone else.

Stomach ailments, sleeping problems, tension, headaches, have afflicted all of us fairly consistently since the blow up with my mother. I’ve had days where I wake up incredibly angry for no reason, just feeling this foreign sense of animosity overwhelming me with no real reason or explainable target. Usually within 24 hours of feeling this way I receive an email or some other form of contact (phone call with a left message because I won’t answer the phone) from my mother.

I have absolutely no doubt that I am feeling her energy. Picking up on the negativity. It might sound ridiculous to some, but once you have experienced it, there is very little doubt as to what is going on. I have to wonder how many other days I felt this way and didn’t connect the dots. I know I’ve probably written things off to depression or anxiety when what was going on at that very moment probably didn’t have much, if anything, to do with either.

Last Friday was one of those days. The next day she called. She left a voicemail talking about how I could believe what I wanted, it was all a choice, blah blah. Then I received an email from her:

“As for my job, [daughter's name removed]‘s friends come to me. If this makes her feel uncomfortable than simply tell them to stop. I do not have the time to seek students out for personal reasons, I am not that needy.”

Except, she has called students over to her. My daughter’s very close friends. She has asked them if they hate her now. Yesterday at school she called over my daughter’s ex-boyfriend, her first boyfriend, the first boy she had a big, big crush on. As it turns out, this is at least the third time she has done this. He finally called my daughter and told her. He explained that each time my mother calls him over she gives him a different version of the blow up and the problems in the family.

I cannot even begin to imagine talking to kids in middle school about personal family situations. My daughter has not told her friends much about the situation and she has told her ex-boyfriend practically nothing aside from explaining that we just aren’t getting along with my mother right now. No details were given to him.

After this last conversation with my mom he finally told her, “This is the third time you have told me this and you have completely changed the story. If [daughter's name removed] is mad at you she has every right to be.”

I guess my mom walked off with her mouth open, stunned. She’s getting sloppy and desperate, not a good combination for anyone within striking distance. Not only is all of this incredibly embarrassing (yes, embarrassing, even though I am discussing it here) it’s upsetting to me that my daughter now feels she needs to protect herself where her friends are concerned because she knows my mother is pressuring them, applying guilt trips, and browbeating them into telling her things my daughter has confided in them. She did the same thing to me when I was in junior high and high school.

The thing is, there really is nothing I can do here. She is a substitute teacher and can accept any assignments offered to her. I’ve requested she not be assigned to any of my daughter’s classes, but I have no real reason or grounds to request she not substitute at her school. Unfortunately, things just don’t work that way.

Still, we all took a great deal of satisfaction in my mother being put in her place by a 14 year old, 8th grade boy. For the first time in weeks we all slept pretty well and last night S.O. was in the best mood he’s been in for a very long time.

And me? I’m too tired of this situation and I’m enjoying my children and family too much to be angry or emotionally charged by this additional garbage. Honestly, like I said, I’m really embarrassed and ashamed of her. If she’s down to looking to my daughter’s friends for support or reassurance, then she’s got to be near rock bottom. That’s pretty sad.

So long story short, my mother did try to get S.O. fired.

Remember, S.O.’s boss is my uh, one-time stepdad referred to as “the boyfriend” here.

S.O. went to meet his boss (on New Year’s Eve, no less) for what he was told was a “business” meeting. Turns out “boyfriend” wanted to let him know that he was not happy with the way WE had attacked my mom and brother.

Meanwhile? My mom and brother were at a Cabin enjoying New Year’s with my brother’s FATHER, the other man in my mom’s life.

I think there is only one way to look at a guy like that - I believe it’s called, pussy whipped.

This guy was my stepdad at one point. He LIVED in the same house as I did for two years. I grew up around him. There are pictures of me in the kitchen of the house he shared with his first wife (my mom’s former best friend) when I was only 2 years old. Yet, there he was referring to me in his conversation with S.O. as “your wife.” Like I was some stranger he’d never met. Several years ago he was having repairs done at his house and he stayed with us for a couple of weeks. And, this is how he treats us all because my mother lied her ass off and misrepresented everything that happened.

So I called him myself.

I let loose several of my mother’s dirty secrets, like how I knew all about his business dealings and the contract and what not that he is putting together to take over the company and my mother’s less than sterling opinion of his business abilities. He got really quiet. So I pushed and said, “Now, how would I know about that?” He said, “I don’t know.” I said, “Well, if YOU didn’t tell me, there is only one other person that could have. And you have caught her in more lies than anyone else on this planet but you are going to believe this?”

Of course, he didn’t have much to say other than, “Everyone has to make decisions based on what is best for them.” So I pushed more and made him admit that my mother told him to fire S.O. he told me that he explained to her you just can’t going around hiring and firing people.

I laughed, hard, and said, “No, no you can’t. And, certainly it wouldn’t look good to try something like that on the word of a pissed of mother in law.”

In short, I wanted to give him the impression that I fully understood how labor laws around here work. You have to give write-ups, you have to give notices, you don’t get to fire someone blindly. The labor board frowns on that just a bit. To say the least.

It was one thing when my mother was making threats, people say horrible things in the heat of the moment. But, to go ahead and put it into action attempting to hurt my family in every way possible. I can’t get over that, not now, not ever.

And the thing is?

I know things that could blow her world apart right now. I know where all the bodies are buried, so-to-speak and I haven’t done a thing. But, I can’t say that will be the case if she launches another attack.