Operator, Please Connect Me…

Derek called me yesterday and wants me to co-sign so that he can get a cell phone. I am stressing over this very badly. I don’t want him to ruin my credit like he has already done with Todd’s credit. Derek used Todd’s cell phone to send text messages and ran the bill so high that it got shut off. It was an astronomical amount that Derek had to re-pay his father.

I just called Todd a bit ago to discuss this with him. He thinks that Derek has learned his lesson because he does not even want the text messaging feature on his phone. Derek is paying his dad and has the balance down to $100. Todd only asks him for $20 a week and some of his paycheck goes into savings. Todd thinks that it is okay that he gets the cell phone and that if he had the credit to co-sign for Derek, he would do it. I asked Todd if he would make sure that Derek is paying the bill because I can not afford for Derek to screw up my credit, let alone his credit at such a young age. I am still torn. I want to say yes but I have doubts! I got him to hold off for one more day! He wanted it yesterday when he called me. He wanted it today when he called me. Maybe I should just keep putting him off ~ at least he will call me!

He has not called me since he needed his social security card to get a job. Before that he called me and asked me if I could take him to get his driver’s permit. And the time before that he called me for money for a gym suit because his dad did not have the money for one.

Do you see a pattern here? I feel a pattern! The only time he calls me is when he wants something from me that his father can not provide. He is too busy doing things with friends to spend any time with me. He even turns us down when we invite him to go to supper with us. He turned me down the last time that I wanted to take him to lunch but he went to lunch with his dad the same day. This bothers me! I feel that both Todd and Derek are using me. I am not a damn bank account or a taxi service. It is not my fault that I applied for a social security card for Derek and Todd did not. Todd could not even keep track of Derek’s birth certificate that I ordered, paid for, and gave to him.

I guess this turned into a rant which I did not mean for it to be but this bothers me. Maybe Derek will call me just to say hi on his cell phone.

I do what I can for all my kids maybe I should not be so sensitive and just think of Derek being a teenager. What teenager wants to hang out with their parents?