Limited Sanity

If you’ve been anywhere but under a rock the past decade or so, no doubt you’ve been inundated with requests from friends and family to *try* their great new product, vitamin, supplement, workout, nail sticker, clothing line, right? Me too. Multi-level Marketing at it’s finest. MLM for short.

I’ve nearly fallen into the trap a few times with various MLMs, but I’ve never gotten past the “research” phase. With anything, I like to research it to death because I never want to be unprepared or surprised with something if I can help it. I could never get past the “But is it worth it?” question. Sure, you’d see all sorts of “results” and before and after shots, but you read about companies swiping random strangers photos online for their marketing efforts, so how do you know what to believe?

I bring this up because my interest and distaste for them has increased 10x these past few weeks with kiddo’s mom getting into yet another one. Now you may think it’s because it’s her mom selling it and we’re not exactly friendly, but really it’s because she’s peddling a shit product with false information, bad ingredients and it’s taking her attention away from her children, especially the medically special needs one who is insulin dependent.

No, I’m not a doctor. No, I’m not a chemist. I’m a normal, well semi-normal, person with internet access and the ability to look up ingredients, reviews, lawsuits, testimonials, and more. This particular program is 3 steps with pills, patch, and shake. Supposed to give you loads of “natural” energy and improve your life 10x. Yet…. it’s not regulated by the FDA, nor does it’s “proprietary blend” doesn’t include the amount of each ingredient. Some of the ingredients have been known to be carcinogenic and the “natural” energy you’re receiving is from CAFFEINE sources the products are jam packed with. Sure, the caffeine might be from natural products like tea, guarana, etc, however, too much of something can still have adverse effects. Cocaine is made from the coca plant – would you still consider that all natural? No – because of all of the chemicals, like kerosene and sulfuric acid, used to make the final product. Not really much difference here.

My problem goes beyond their shit natural ingredients though. They specifically target lonely housewives who need a hobby or that want to “own” their own business someday, without actually any business experience. They suck them in and then suck them dry. They make you hound your friends and family incessantly to the point of driving a wedge between you. You have to try and recruit other people to promote the product who will recruit others to sell as well. But guess what? You’re selling to the same freaking crowd. They build you up with this “women self-empowerment hear us roar” bullshit, only to have you turn into an in-person telemarketer with false advertising methods and misinformation. Whatever though, to each their own. I would just hope people would learn to read the fine print, ask for financial disclosures, ANYTHING to make sure they’re not signing up for just another pyramid scheme.

Now back to the baby mama, who’s been on this program for a month or so now, and bragging to the world about what a better, nicer person she is, how much it’s helped her with getting up earlier and getting out the door on time, and how much better her relationship is. With any MLM program, they tell you what to post on social media – they tell you to fake it til you make it, that’s how you do it. So while on social media she may seem like she’s crushing life and living the dream, we still have to deal with the real version of her: super cunt with a side of trailer trash.

Now look, I’ve been trying to give this woman the benefit of the doubt for SEVEN years now. From the very beginning all she wanted was conflict. From Facebook messages of “Let’s meet, I want to know the woman around my child” to “D and I are still in love, you should hear how he talks when you’re not around” to “I know people, they said D lied about this or you lied about that.” She has more mood swings than me, which being a Cancer on antidepressants and anxiety meds says a lot. I am a good person, I have no doubt in my mind about that, nor my attempts at peaceful co-parenting. However, I’m done staying silent with shitty people, and that includes kiddo’s mom. I’m not a confrontational person, but after 2 weeks ago with her yelling at me at MY OWN front door and then an hour of text messages last night playing the victim and blaming her problems on everyone else… I’m ready to fight. Not literally, but I would go to the mat for that little girl in a heartbeat, no second thoughts. Especially now that mom is even more obsessed with this new “job,” in addition to her other jobs and isn’t putting kiddo’s diabetes as top priority. When I point out how important it is and the forgetting has to stop, all of a sudden I’m trying to rub in her face I’m the better parent and I should remember my place because I’m only dad’s girlfriend with no kids of my own so I couldn’t possibly understand and blah blah blah. That’s horseshit. I helped raise both of my younger brothers from a very young age and was expected to be responsible for many things by the time I was kiddos age of 8, but I wouldn’t expect her to know that or care about that because it doesn’t involve her in any way.

D is heading out of town this weekend for a dude’s weekend. I asked him to consider contacting his lawyer when he gets back or at least us sitting down and drafting a letter to the lawyer to at least update them on recent events and ask for advice. This forgetting diabetic supplies shit HAS to stop. What will it take, her going to the ER for it to sink in? He said he’s game, so now to go through my huge ass daily planner with notes to write down significant dates and issues and hopefully it’ll be enough to consider letting her spend more time at our house.

Okay, end rant for now. Kid’s with her mother for the weekend so we won’t have any other significant issues that I can think of because she refuses to see us or talk to us, all messages are through the kid now. Here’s hoping kiddo survives the weekend mostly unscathed.

Til next time.