It's All My Husband's Fault

  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...