It's All My Husband's Fault

  One day, I get a call from Son's cell phone while he's at school.  It's the principal, who says Son hurt himself and I might want to come look at it.  I drive down to the school, the secretary lets me in and says, "Yeah, he definitely needs stitches."  I ask what happened; Son says he tried jumping over a leaf pile, caught his foot in a wagon handle and landed on his face instead of his feet.   I leave the school with him, trying to plan what to do with Baby Boy while I'm dealing with this; Son is trying to call The Ex.  The Ex is not answering.  I call The Ex, who still doesn't answer; I leave her a message saying that Son hurt himself, I'm taking him to urgent care and he's probably going to need stitches and she can call me if she has questions.   The Ex calls Son ( Heaven forbid she speak to me ), hasn't even listened to my message.  Son tells her he broke his chin open and needs stitches.  The Ex asks if we're at the doctor; S...

  The kids asked me on a Monday if they were here for the following weekend or with The Ex.  I said they were with The Ex, because she and Husband had switched weekends for the dance. ( Remember that whole ordeal?  We switched weekends and then lost one of our days for the birthday party which The Ex intentionally switched trying to make things difficult?  The following weekend was the weekend they had switched for )   The kids said something about The Ex may not come to get them and if she didn't come, then she wanted a different weekend. ( ...what? )  I told the kids that wasn't how placement worked; their mom got them certain days and their dad got them certain days.  If their mom chose not to take them on her days, then that's all there was to it.  A few days later, we found out that The Ex told someone that she wasn't going to have the kids the following weekend, but then said she might have them ( Okay, I see where this is going. ...

  I'm sure that for some people, mediation works great.  However, when you are dealing with a narcissist who only cares about what works best for herself, then mediation is not going to work.  Husband and The Ex had been to mediation twice before; it did nothing for them.  Despite this, the court still refers them to mediation because...well, I don't know why.  I guess they hope that maybe - just maybe - the two of them can agree on something and not waste the court's time.  Unfortunately, The Ex wants everything done her way; if it's not done that way, we end up in court.   Husband and The Ex had mediation in September.  As soon as it started, The Ex began complaining about e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.  The Ex can't afford this, The Ex can't pay for that, The Ex doesn't agree to this, blah blah blah.  Husband looked at her and said, "Why do you keep saying 'I'?  We're supposed to be talking about the kids, not you." ( Burn . )  The ...

  The kids came home from school, said there was a dance in School City the next week and that they wanted to go with their friends.  We told them that weekend was The Ex's weekend but we'd email her and see.  Husband sent an email that Friday night, saying that the dance was next Saturday and both kids wanted to go.  Husband asked if they kids could stay for the dance, or if The Ex would bring them to it.   Sunday afternoon, The Ex calls Son and says she got Husband's email about the dance but she has to say no.  Son starts whining ( Literally, whining ) saying he wants to go.  The Ex says they're having her son's birthday party on Saturday so they can't do both things; The Ex then starts playing mind games and tells Son that Husband shouldn't be talking to Son about this without talking to her first ( What?  You'd rather that Husband ask you if the kids can go, wait for your answer, and THEN ask the kids if they even want to go in the first pl...

  We had tons of things pending.  The Ex was trying to get her child support reduced and was asking the court to find Husband in contempt for not bringing Son home that one single night.  Husband was asking the court to clarify variable expenses ( Because The Ex was refusing to pay for school lunches and because of that B.S. she pulled over Daughter's basketball shoes ) and was asking for the sole right to choose extracurricular activities for the kids ( Over the last four years, The Ex complained about every single activity the kids took part in; she never wanted to take them, she never wanted to pay for it, she never wanted them to do anything if it was on "her" time.  The kids can't even be kids because their mom is too busy trying to spite their father. )  Child support had also filed for contempt against The Ex because she wasn't completing work search forms and fell behind on support when she ran out of unemployment benefits.   Because The Ex still ...

  Husband got Son contacts, scanned the receipts and emailed them to The Ex.  Husband also asked what The Ex wanted to do about practices the following week, reminding The Ex that if Son missed any practices he would not get playing time.  The next day, Husband emailed Son's football schedule and a receipt for school supplies with a breakdown of costs and what The Ex owed for them ( We literally went through all the barcodes on the supplies, highlighted on the receipt which ones were Son or Daughter's supplies against which ones were Baby Girl's supplies, added it up, figured out what the percentage was that The Ex owed and gave her the total. )  The Ex did not reply.  Five days later, Husband sent another email about Son's football practice.   Three days after the football practice email, The Ex emails back about school supplies.  The Ex says that when school ended this past year, they had agreed to do school supply shopping together ( Um, no. ) ...