She'll behave herself on moving day because my brother will be here, and she wants to look good in front of him. The most she might do is go off and sulk. My son is invited to a birthday party that day, so he could go to that while we move. He doesn't really have friends right now. My mother has made sure he's stayed isolated, and anytime he does get involved with something and enjoy it, she stops taking him. She had him going to church and Sunday School, but now he doesn't do that either. She's too afraid I might get five minutes alone with my father to talk.
My dad said he had a really bad feeling about this court situation, and he wanted to know what his responsibility would be. I told him there shouldn't be any, since he had nothing to do with it. He was asking me what all I might need for moving, and he even told me it was a fine idea. That felt pretty good.
My son crawled into bed with me last night and said he was really nervous about moving and wanted to know why we had to move. He likes this place, and he didn't get to see his new room. He was mad at me for doing this, even though this is going to be the best thing for both of us, but for a minute, I considered backing out of the lease agreement in light of his tears and sadness. THen I realized he was manipulating me, just like my mom does, and I told him I couldn't back out of the lease. It was done and we were moving, and it was all right if he was mad at me, and the next time we move, he could house hunt with me. This time though, I took the first place I could find. He's just going to have to accept that he's going to be leaving his old room behind, and that he might have to get rid of some of the toys and things he doesn't play with anymore.
I'm just not going to back down. I found a really interesting book at the library, "leaving home" by David Celani. It is an excellent book about adult children who have a hard time separating from their families. I'm finding it very inspirational.