Neighbors

So about a year ago, we had new neighbors move in who I'll refer to as M & D. At the time, they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but are now married. M has a 4 year old daughter from a previous marriage (A) and A and Paige play pretty well together (for the most part, there is some drama, but not bad).

Last summer the girls would go back and forth between houses, ours one night, A's the next. Maybe they were at our house more but it didn't really bother me much.

This spring/summer is a different story, we bought the swing set (a cheap ghetto metal one from Kmart, but they LOVE it) and A is at our house ALL THE TIME. Typically when we get home, Paige sees that M's car is home and runs over to their house before even coming into our house. Fine. Next thing you know A is shooting out of her house and both are dashing to our swing set. Again, fine. I'm starting to notice that A is ALWAYS at our house and the girls are never playing at A's.

So last night it's cool and rainy and not a good night to play outside. The above scenario plays out, and after about 2 minutes outside I tell the girls to come inside and play. They are rather good at entertaining themselves, but I still have to referee occasionally. So Paige pulls out her "new" (from a rummage sale with 2 pieces missing) strawberry shortcake game for her and A to play and it's painfully obvious that A has never played a board game before because she has no clue what to do. She finally seems to grasp it, I leave to change my clothes and Paige comes storming in a minute later saying A is playing it wrong. I tell them to put it away and play with Paige's barbies.

A is over for about an hour before I send her home so we can eat. After supper Paige wants to play with A, so we send her over there with instructions to play at A's house, A is eating and will come over when she's done. Great. So A comes over a little while later and we say, why don't you go over to your house? A replies "my mom doesn't want us to play at my house." WTF?!?!?! I was livid. A was over for about 5 minutes and we sent her home.

Mike looked outside a little while later and noticed A sitting on the steps outside of her house alone. Again, WTF? She's only 4. Someone could grab her so fast. Granted I leave the 2 girls outside alone for a few minutes, but my windows are open and Duchess is outside. She'll bark protectively at a kid biking down the street so I know she won't let anything go down.

I really really really like M and D, but am really starting to doubt M's parenting. Her ex gets her EVERY single weekend from Thursday afternoon-Sunday afternoon and then she's at our house almost every night. How about spending a little time with your kid? I have a feeling that she's sending A to our house all the time so her and the new hubby can have a quickie. But hey, I wouldn't mind one too!

I know I need to say something to M, but it's hard. I don't like to confront people and this is such an awkward topic. I don't want it to come out petty, but hey one night over at A's so I can have a quiet house-is that too much to ask?