Thanks to all of you for your support. It's nice to know you're thinking of me.

HP, if it was just the 'nitpicking' I think I could somehow deal. It's more, and I got a glimpse of how much more this morning:

This morning as I was getting the girls ready for school, I came across D9's open backpack. There were a bunch of papers shoved into it, so I started to straighten them up, and noticed that on top was a 'forgetting notice'. If the kids forget to do homework, or forget a book they get a mark, after 5 marks it gets sent home to be signed. I got one home in early Nov., sat down and talked with D9 and H, and he assured me that he was following her homework (as I am at work in the evenings, there is not always time for us to get the homework done in the hr or so before I leave in the afternoon).

Now I find that in those two weeks, D9 basically did NO homework. Not only that, but she apparently hid the paper from me, as it was sent home well over a month ago.

Add to this the fact that she's had trouble sleeping, to the point that yesterday, she had a friend over and spent the whole afternoon slamming doors and complaining that she never got to be alone.

I'm more than a little worried about my very bright, very sensitive little girl.

I did get upset with her this morning. On top of all this, she has long hair, which she refuses to take care of, so I needed to brush it (it looked horrible), and there was screaming. H got upset about that.

When he got back from bringing the girls to school, I told him why I had gotten upset, and that I was very worried about her (he seemed to think it was just about the hair).

His reaction 'Yeah, can we talk about this later, I have to go to work'.

So I go to make his breakfast/lunch, since he's in such a hurry, and he disappears. Finally I went to see where he was, and he was sitting at the computer. So I said 'How is it that you don't have time to discuss your daughter's future, but you do have time to sit at the computer?' He didn't answer.

After he came down to breakfast, I brought it up again, and he blew. Started yelling, so I walked away. He yelled after me that why did I get to walk away when he was trying to talk to me. I told him that I wouldn't listen if he was going to yell in that way. Finally I went back downstairs, and said that I would be willing to listen, if he would talk about what needed to be done, in a civil tone. He told me that he has certain routines that he needs to stick to, that if I was going to spy on him, he would call it for what it was, that I was starting this whole thing again, how my conversations go on and on and on and I never let things drop, etc. etc. etc.

He kept asking if that answered my question. I finally said, yes, it did very nicely, thank you H.