Had a good time with S, MIL as at least civil. W was there at drop off, I think she wanted to talk but didn't have the courage to ask. The cardinal rule around here seems to be "Never initiate an R talk", but W rarely does. Got home, Goodnight call came soon after. S sounded good, kept conversation with W to a minimum, but she managed to ask me if I was picking S up on Friday. Here it is, Wenesday, and she wants to confirm that I'm picking him up on Friday. This means only one thing: She has plans, probably out of state. Apparently, immediately proceeding her call to "ask if she could come home", SFIL sat her down and told her she is going to have to start paying rent if she wants to stay. MIL claims that everyone is on her to get her, ahem, stuff together, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to that. W and I have had several non-combative exchanges this week, but I'm sweating a little bit. I know I've made quite a show of convincing everyone (including myself) that I'm done with her. I know all the "she's thinking about it as much as you are" advice. I'm still sweating. When her father had an affair, MIL and he limped on for another couple of years, allowing FIL to consolidate his position and really put the hammer to MIL when he decided to. I very much fear the same kind of tactic from W, so I don't feel I can take the risk of letting her breeze back in without some sign that she is ready to really commit to this thing.
What the heck do I do? This is the first time in a long time that I have had to force myself not to call her. Do I just sweat it out and trust that she will make some sort of move? Or, do I just let her continue making things worse and worse for everybody?
P.S. MIL was trying to bait a fight this morning, whether conciously or unconciously. Examples: When I said that I had tried to arrange for my mom to come sit with S so he could stay at home today (apparenlty SFIL says that as long as W and I are seperated, MIL can't stay here to watch S. Big of him.) but could not due to the last minute nature of the scheduling change, MIL responded by claiming that she hadf told W that, had she been in my shoes, she would have said no. Of course,I was sorely tempted to do just that, but I know W couldn't give a crap about anyone right now, so my saying no would only deny me another evening with my son, deny him another evening with a truly devoted parent, and leave MIL holding the bag. Yet again. I of course said none of this, just said that I couldn't pass up the chance to be with S because I so rarelyget to see him. MIL responded by saying that it was going to get a whole lot worse if W and I didn't get this worked out. My immediate response was "wanna bet?", but again I held my tongue and just did not respond at all. Class act, my MIL.
I'm quite sure W has told everyone that she just bent over backwards when she asked if she could come home, so now everyone is wondering what my problem is. Grrrrrr.
