What do you say to that?

This is a completely unrelated blog tonight. But it does effect one of the kids. Master Bumblebee.

As you may or may not know, my partner is not Master Bumblebee's biological dad. He might as well be in every other sense of the word when it comes to being a parent. Master Bumblebee's father and I separated when he was 14 months old. He has no memory of us ever being together. His father has always been there, but has only been there as a proper father off and on - when it suits him you could say. Despite this, it would appear that Master Bumblebee adores his dad. Well that's what I thought anyway.

At dinner tonight, my partner's dads girlfriend had a friend of hers over. Her friend has a little girl who would be a little bit older then Master Bumblebee. She was asking Master Bumblebee where his dad was tonight, to what he responded with "I don't have a dad." What the hell do I say to him when he says that?

He has never, ever come out with this before. He has on occasion called my partner his dad when we pick him up from school, but we have put that down to the fact that Master Bumblebee want's to fit in with all the other kids in his class who's dads come to pick them up from school on a Friday afternoon.

The thing with Master Bumblebee's dad is that I think I cut him a bit more slack then I really should. Don't get me wrong, when the two of them are together, they are fantastic. But when it's just Master Bumblebee and Mum, dad isn't anywhere to be seen or heard from. It has been I think at least 4 weeks since he last seen Master Bumblebee, and hasn't even once called to speak to him on the phone, or messaged me to see how he is. This is the way it has always been.

For the whole 5 years and 6 months Master Bumblebee has been here, and the 9 months when he wasn't, I have had to be mum and dad. The only constant in his life. The only one who has been there every single time without fail when he has been sick, or fallen over and hurt his knee, or learnt something new, or on important days like the first day of kinder. I have been there for all of that. I'm pretty sure I can count the amount of times his dad has been there when it count's on one hand.

Master Bumblebee has been through the motions with his dad for a little while now. It all started with him refusing to call him dad but would rather call him by his first name. If asked what his last name is, he will respond with telling you my last name (Master Bumblebee's legal last name is his father's). But he has never said his dad doesn't exist.

I didn't know what to say, so I simply said nothing at all. I just looked at my partner as if to say "Where the hell did that come from." Is it simply the fact that Master Bumblebee has realized what people have been telling me he would figure out in a few years, that his dad isn't ever there when it matters, or is it something more then that? That I cannot answer.