Trouble in Paradise: Part I

Well I guess you're wondering why I look so sad.....alot of things have happened and none of them are good. I don't even know where I should begin......I guess it all started with Tyler's birthday party...........

My son Tyler is now a very handsome and hardworking teenager. He's a very playful young man who is very interested in traveling around the world. He's working very hard in school so that he will get alot of scholarships when he graduates. Craig and I decided that he deserved to have a party so I threw him one. Things were going great until my mom and Craig got into it.......again......

My mom blames Craig for me not finishing school. She thinks I should have the same life as my brother Aiden and she is always picking fights with either me or Craig when she comes over. I didn't even want to invite her but Tyler IS her grandson. The fighting is always really hard on Christa.....My mother always makes me feel like such a little child, and while I know Craig doesn't deserve it, I guess I don't really take up for him when she starts. This always leads to a fight between us. I broke up the fight and tried to salvage the rest of the party.

The next morning, Craig was doing his best to ignore me. He got up early and had his breakfast. When I came down and sat at the table, he just got up and walked away. It really hurt even though I can kind of understand it. But he knows that weekend breakfasts and dinners with the family are really important to me.

So it was just me and the kids that morning. They always want to know why their grandmother acts that way and I just tell them that its because she has a problem with me and is no reflection on how she feels about them......seems I'm always taking up for her.

I decided to confront Craig after breakfast.

"Craig, look I know you're mad about last night but that is no reason for you to miss breakfast with your kids," I said.

"My kids? Are you sure they aren't you and your mother's kids? Kasha I'm tired of your mother acting like I ruined your life. I didn't force you to quit school, that was your decision. I didn't force you to marry me, again, your decision. So why is it that she treats me like the scum of the earth even though I provide for you and our kids?"

"Craig, I don't know why she acts like that. You make it seem like she's never in my face. She gave me her store but stays on my ass all the time about how I run it. What do you want me to do Craig?

"Hell, take up for me occasionally. Kasha, she's your mother, but you're also an adult. This is MY house and she doesn't run MY house!"

"YOUR house? Oh, and I guess the hours I put in at the store don't bring in any money huh?" I asked.

"You know I don't mean it like that. I'm sick of having to argue with my wife everytime her mother comes over because her mother berates me and my wife lets her. And it's hard on the kids too, Kasha. Did you not see Christa running off crying? This has got to stop."

"I don't know what you want me to do, Craig. She's my mother."

"And I'm your husband," he said walking away.

I hate fighting with Craig and was in a bad mood all day. Christa had been acting weird and I was worried about her. I was even more worried when I sat down to eat and she sat down with me. I can't remember the last time she voluntarily stayed in the same room with me. She told me that she needed to talk to me and Craig and I knew something wasn't right. I was trying to figure out a way to save my marriage and now I had to deal with whatever mess Christa was in.

As she was clearing away the dishes I went in to tell Craig that she wanted to talk to us.

"Do you remember when she was little and we didn't have problems with her? She was a perfect little angel," I said.

"Yea, then she became a teenager and it's like aliens came and took her brain! What are the odds of her having good news? You know, like she found out she won a scholarship?"

"Slim to none," I said.

Mom and dad........well I've been seeing this guy for a few months now and I didn't tell you," she said.

"You've been out of this house with a boy that we've never met? Have you lost your mind Christa? Who is this boy?" Craig asked.

"Well, that's the thing.......he's not a boy. He's in college."

"Christa Ann Ray, you HAVE lost your mind! You are 16 years old! You don't date men in college. Hell, you don't DATE at all because we haven't even discussed it!" I yelled.

"We didn't discuss it because I knew you guys wouldn't go for it."

"You don't know what we would "go for" because you didn't ask! Christa, you're 16. We thought it was weird that you WEREN'T dating. You should have come to us......but college men are OUT. What could you possibly have with a man in college? Nothing that's what. So this little thing with your college boy is over," Craig said.

"That's kinda going to be hard to do.....I'm pregnant," she said.

Craig was off the couch before I could register what she said......pregnant?

"You better be joking."

"Look dad, I didn't mean for this to happen. It was an accident," she said.

"You're 16! There shouldn't be any accidents because you shouldn't be having sex! What the hell are you going to do with a baby? Christa you let the pet bird we bought you starve to death!" Craig yelled.

"Dad, that was a bird! I can take care of my child just fine. And Tyson will help me."

"Oh, really? You really think that loser is going to help you raise this child?"

"Yes! And he's not a loser. He's a really good guy!"

"Good guys don't have sex with 16 year olds, Christa," Craig said.

"You know, when you told us that you didn't want to go to college, I was a little disappointed. But after I thought about it, your mother went and didn't like it and she's doing just fine. I was ready to let that go. But this........Christa, I have never been more disappointed in you than I am right now, at this very moment. You've ruined you life over a guy who's probably going to disappear on you," Craig said walking away.

"You're wrong! Tyson loves me!" she yelled.

"He loves you? Christa, he doesn't love you. If he loved you, he would have insisted that he meet us before taking things this far with you. He would never have laid down with a 16 year old girl. If he loved you, he would have waited for you. I can't believe you've ruined your life this way."

"Why do you guys keep saying that? My life isn't ruined! Tyson is going to graduate soon and then we can get our own place and I can stay home and work on my music and take care of the baby," she said.

"Are you serious, Christa? What kind of fantasy world do you live in? See, you wouldn't know this because your father and I waited until we were stable to have kids, but do you know where we used to live? In a trailer park. When I made the decision to drop out of school, your grandparents cut me off. I moved in with your father and the best we could do without either one of us having a job was a tiny trailer. Your grandmother eventually forgave me and gave me a job in her store and her father got promoted at his job. Life isn't the bed of roses you are painting it out to be. But it's ok. You're about to find out the hard way," I said walking away from her.

I went upstairs and Craig was laying across the bed deep in thought. He asked me why kids had to grow up. I told him the world would stop if they didn't. He wanted to know if we were to blame for this, but I don't think so. Christa shut us out of her life the day she became a teen. I've tried getting through to her with no success. Grandparents. We're going to be grandparents.

I pulled Craig close and sighed deeply. Nothing like another crisis to mask the original one.

"You know your mother is going to hit the roof when she finds out. We'll be bad people AND bad parents now," he said.

"You know what? Who cares? We have bigger problems than my mother right now."

Huge problems, in fact.......

Craig really has been acting differently towards Kasha since he and her mother got into it. Anna just really hates Craig and she always had......typical son-in-law/mother-in-law relationship!