Chels will be turning 9 in two weeks. And as I had promised the ex that we will still include him in the important events in her life, I asked Chels to call him and ask if he had planned to do anything for her or with her.

Major major mistake, its either I had some memory lost or I was trying too hard to be nice. How could I have forgotten the man who had dismantled the water feature just days before her 8th birthday to bring back to his mom's house. This was despite my mom, someone from the older generation reasoning with him that Chels had invited a few friends over for her 8th birthday and it would look weird to have that empty table sitting at the entrance of the house. Anyway, it was either my memory lost or me being magnaminous.

So Chels calls him and asks if he had any comments about what to do for her birthday, he shoots her many questions she was unable to answer and the poor girl, tongue tied had passed the phone to me to talk to her father.

I went straight to the point and asked him what he intended to do for her birthday and he asked me "What day is it?" YES!!!!! You read right, he asked me what day is it. I kind of lashed out at him and asked him what kind of father he was among other things.

So to cut it short I told him I wanted to keep it simple this year and just have a meal and gave him the option to join us. He said he had to think about it. A day later he SMSed me and said ok, he will come and pay a portion of the dinner bill.

When he came this weekend, He told Chels that he will not be paying anything for the dinner and will also not buy her a cake. My mom was really shocked, she asked him whether it was because he didn't want to involve the family and offered to not join the dinner. He still refused to answer and left. After two hours, he calls and says he will join the dinner and after another two hours SMSes again to say he won't.

Well, that's the kind of man he is, well at least without him in the picture I can just plan a nice meal for ourselves. What scares and irritates me the most is that  there is still 2 weeks to her birthday, how many more times is he going to call to say he wants to come or doesn't want to come.

My parents were royally pissed with him and told me to put my foot down. Since he already said twice he won't be joining, do not allow him to join again. If he did, he'd end up spoiling everyone's day anyway. I really hope he keeps to his word and not turn up to spoil the fun on Chels' birthday.