I originally posted this to my regular blog the other day but would like to see what others might have to say about the situation. Thanks.

I've talked before about having some weird, intuitive feelings about things that were about to happen, and although I don't always recognize that that's what's going on, I've tried hard to really LISTEN to them when they happen.

It happened yesterday and I didn't listen, and although it wasn't a bad thing, I still am left to wonder.

If my ex-husband does read this, I hope he will not take offense, as the feelings I had were not specifically about him, but rather his actions on the whole. Because he is not a parent, I doubt he can possibly understand mine or my husband's position on this.

Now, for the explanation.

My ex-husband, who is not the father of my children, is up visiting NH. He is single, has been for the nearly 12 years that we've been divorced. We're still friends, and so I know for a fact that he hasn't even dated in that time.

During that time, he's spent his vacations and other time off with nieces (he has no nephews), including my brother's oldest daughter, as well as his step-brother's kids. He takes them places, and is in general, a fun, generous uncle.

Gradually, though, they've all grown older and have sort of "moved on". This actually started with my youngest brother & sister when we were married. We spent tons of time with them because we had no kids of our own.

Anyway, he's up here visiting. And because we have Zachary now, I'm not really in a position to do the things that he came up to do (water park, hiking, etc. ) so he's asked to take Anthony with him to do various things. He took him bike riding yesterday in the town's cemetary (because it's safe) and that's when my momtuition kicked in. He's never said or done anything even remotely icky, but the whole situation just had my hackles up. I mean - he's alone, with my 10 yr old son, in a place that's FULL of ... places to hide? I guess. I don't know - maybe it's just my imagination in full force, but I just had an icky feeling the whole time they were gone, and was very grateful for them to be back.

Today, he wanted to take Anthony hiking with him up a not too serious mountain. Again, my ick factor raised to RED and I just didn't like the idea. I spoke to hubby via IM and he wasn't either but was leaving the decision to me (but with the addendum that if something happened to Anthony (mountain lion, cliff, etc), that ex-hubby would DIE.

Greeeeat.

So, I finally came to the decision that I just didn't like the idea. But I didn't want to offend the ex-hubby, because he's really done nothing to warrant this kind of ickiness. So I said that my stomach is still bothering me from last night, and that hubby didn't want me left alone with the other two in case something got worse. Anthony was mad, but he seems to have gotten over it. Ex-hubby left to go hiking. End of story, right?

Or is it?

I was out in the garden with Libby and it occurred to me that we'd never talked to Anthony about what he should do if someone WE KNEW did something that made him feel weird, icky, etc. Probably because I want to shield him from that, and he's homeschooled and doesn't get around many people for any kind of extended time, it's just never been an issue. But all the WHAT IFs floated around in my brain while I was weeding, and I finally had to bring it up with him, without pointing a finger at the ex at the same time. I just explained that if someone did try to do something that made him feel weird, or anything, to get away and then tell me or his dad, NO MATTER WHAT the person says. Again, it was hard to do without pointing a finger or naming names, and just to keep it general and light, but I hope I managed.

His response was, rather indignantly, "I know, Mom" and that was it.

What would you do? Would you let your pre-teen go hang out with a 40 yr old man? Am I being over-protective/over-cautious? Am I letting prejudices get to me? Or is my momtuition a finely tuned machine, protecting my kids from unseen, and possibly real danger?

Should I up my zoloft? ROTFLMAO