It's All My Husband's Fault

  Things were okay-ish this year.  There were a few incidents here and there; The Ex dropped off the kids one day and told Husband that he had to punish Son.  Husband asked why, The Ex said that Son had hit Daughter earlier so he needed to be punished.  Husband asked why The Ex hadn't punished Son when the problem happened; her response was that she "didn't have time."   Another time, The Ex was an hour late dropping off the kids when she finally called and asked for directions; she said she "didn't remember" where our apartment was. ( We had lived here for eight months; she couldn't remember how to get there because she never dropped the kids off herself - she always had her parents do it for her while she was running around with Boyfriend )  Husband told her if that was the case, then she would have to leave earlier because now he was missing out on time with the kids.  The Ex replied, "I just called for directions, I don't need your bulls...

  I've always loved kids.  When I was a kid myself, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a wife and mom.  I babysat a lot, all the kids liked having me watch them.  So it was probably just a natural thing for Son and Daughter to like me as well.  And I think that is one of the main reasons The Ex hates me.  Instead of seeing me as someone who makes a daily choice to love, care for and nurture her children, she sees this as a competition.( Which I would win, hands down.  But that's not the point... )   About six months into our relationship, Husband and I found out we were having a baby.  This was 100% unplanned; I wasn't raised this way, this wasn't something I was okay with, yet here I was in the middle of it.  After getting over the initial shock, I got excited.   I was going to be a mom!  We were excited, the kids were excited.  After a few months, Husband told The Ex we were expecting.  Her response:  "I ...

  For awhile, we had a decent enough arrangement over clothing.  We only had the kids for four nights a month so we didn't really have a "wardrobe" for them.  We'd buy a few things here and there but they would grow out of the clothes before they ever got any wear out of them.  The Ex finally agreed to pack clothes for the kids each weekend we had them; two changes for each kid, nothing more.  We'd wash the dirty clothes Saturday night, pack the bag and return whatever had come in it.   One day, Husband asked Ex if she could pack something a little nicer for the kids to wear than just t-shirts and jeans with holes in them; he said he wanted the kids to look nice when we took them to church.  The Ex asked if we were still attending a Lutheran church that Husband had gone to for a brief period of time before he and I started dating.  Husband told her no, we attended a non-denominational Christian church.  The Ex demanded that we stop taking t...

  We'll start at the beginning of my relationship with Husband; these are things I saw/heard/read first-hand so there's no bias.  I know these things to be fact, not just something I'm repeating.   Husband told me upfront he was divorced and had two kids.  I was leery of this because my sister had dated someone with a child; it ended badly, my sister was heartbroken over losing someone who she had come to consider her own child.  I didn't want to get into a mess like that but fortunately, I did.   When we first started dating, I was not going to get involved in their dissolved marriage.  I knew how divorce worked - everything was always the other person's fault and never your own, "If only they would've..."  I knew he wasn't a perfect person and had probably made just as many mistakes as she had which contributed to their divorce.  I was not going to take "his side" just because we were dating.   I met the kids maybe one week into ...

  They knew each other as kids, dated a short period of time in their late teens/early twenties, she got pregnant so they got married.  So they should have lived happily ever after...right?  Um, no.  Unfortunately for the kids, this is not a Disney movie; this is real life.  They had stupid parents who got pregnant without planning it, flew by the seat of their pants, acted young and dumb, had a second kid together and ended up getting divorced.   The Ex filed for divorce the first time ( Yes, there was more than the "first" time ) when she was nine months pregnant with their daughter.  Their daughter was born, they decided to "work it out" and had the divorce action dismissed.   Two years later, The Ex filed for divorce again.  Again, they decided to "work it out" for the kids.   A mere seven months later, she filed for divorce the third time.  She actually approached him at some point during the proceedings, claiming ...