I'm Not Gossipping!

I'm really not. But I am concerned for my little neighbor girls, Blondie 1 and Blondie 2. If you're rather new to my blog and don't know about this neighbor family of mine, read up a little on The Blondies and their parents, "Barbie and Ken" right here.

This has been a strange summer for the Barbie family. As I mentioned in that previous post, their children spend copious amounts of time at our house; which sometimes I have issues with, and sometimes I don't. It entirely depends on what kind of mood I'm in and how good or bad my kids have been that day. But I was really looking forward to a great summer of lots of outdoor play with these girls for my kids. After all, during the school year they are over until the sun goes down; why wouldn't it be any different? I guess Barbie had different plans for the summer for her girls.

A few months ago, I'd say right at the beginning of the summer, Barbie was outside with her girls and I was outside with mine. She and I were making idle chit-chat when Barbie decided to spill her guts to me. (I was once telling hubby that every time I have a conversation with Barbie, I end up feeling absolutely stunned by something that she had to tell me....never fails.) However, even for Barbie and her "diarrhea of the mouth" problem, this may have been one thing that if I were her, I would have kept to myself. There we are, standing at the end of my driveway, and she spills it:

Barbie: "I'm kind of having an affair."

Kristen: (not exactly knowing how to respond to this sudden news...) "Oh, um...really?"

Barbie: "Yeah. I'm not sleeping with him or anything. I've known him for a long time and he just gives me the emotional support that Ken doesn't give me. I've only held his hand and talked to him on the phone. But Ken found out about it and now I feel like I'm in prison. He says he wants to work things out and he doesn't want to lose me, but that I have to quit seeing this guy."

Kristen: "Oh, wow." (I'm not often speechless, but what does she expect me to say?!?!)

She then went on to outline all of the reasons that this affair is justifiable in her mind and why she doesn't believe she can quit seeing him.

The summer progressed, and while I didn't ask Barbie anymore about it, I began to notice the change in the household. When Ken was home, Barbie wasn't, and vice versa. Sometimes the Blondies were with Barbie, sometimes with Ken, but they were never together.

Sometimes (a lot of the time) Ken would be at home most of the evening by himself accompanied by extremely loud music coming from his truck. Barbie would cruise into the driveway at some point in the night because her car would be there the next day, and Ken's truck would not.

There would be days at a time where my kids wouldn't see the Blondies. In my mind, of course, having heard news of the affair straight from the horse's mouth, I was pretty sure this had something to do with the disappearance of the female 3/4 of the household.

As the weeks of the summer have passed on, this trend has continued. When the girls do come over and play with mine, most times they are wearing the same clothes they've worn for the past two or three days. Their hair is un-combed and they look disheveled and almost sad. Particularly Blondie 1. When they are home, they are home at my house....not theirs. Knowing what they could potentially be going through right now, I do not make issue of this any longer. My home, my family and my kids may be the only sense of normalcy they have right now. I don't know. What I do know is that the Blondies have been spending a lot of time at "mommy's friend Jack's house" lately, and that Jack is a 54 year old twice married man with seven children (and is currently married).

I feel so unbelievably sad for these girls, sad for Ken (although I don't know what the full story is...only what Blondie told me herself and my observances from living next door to them), and angry at Blondie for doing this to her kids. Granted, I don't know everything that is happening with them, and I don't need to, but I don't think it's right to be taking your children to your "sugar daddy's" house and confusing them that way. I've considered offering them to adopt their kids. I might as well. They are such sweet girls and I feel sad for them.