She's about as useful as a glass hammer.

  Daughter has been more or less at war with The Ex over the last few weeks.  Honestly, I can't say that I blame her even a tiny little bit.  Here's a list of just some of what Daughter has told me has happened over the last 1.5-2 months.

  A few weeks ago, Daughter was telling me how she made friends with a guy up in Tiny City who she met through her aunt/The Ex's sister.  Daughter said one day, she was at her grandparents' house; her grandpa and her aunt were home, and this guy came over to hang out.  The Ex found out about it and started yelling at Daughter for "hanging out with a guy."  Daughter got upset and told The Ex that she didn't know why she was getting yelled at for being only friends with someone, but Son can sleep with whoever he wants and get people pregnant. (Son and Girlfriend have been "trying" to have a baby for the last 6 months.  Girlfriend said that she was "pregnant," and I use quotation marks because none of what she said made sense.  She claimed the doctor was worried that she was having an ectopic pregnancy.  When she went in for an ultrasound, told Son that they ruled out an ectopic pregnancy, but couldn't confirm her pregnancy until she got the results of her blood test which makes no sense; if they did an ultrasound on her fallopian tubes, why didn't they just look at her uterus at the same time?  Girlfriend never went an OB/GYN and made excuses about needing to find one who took her insurance, which is accepted by every single doctor in this state.  Girlfriend never gave anyone a due date and nobody ever saw an ultrasound.  I predicted a "miscarriage" was coming.  Lo and behold, a few weeks later Girlfriend claimed she miscarried.  Now Son is living up there 100% of the time, and they are again claiming Girlfriend is pregnant.  By the way, Girlfriend is still in high school, the two of them are living in her parents' basement, and Son still doesn't have a job.)  The Ex's response to this was, "Well, [Son] is a guy." (In this day and age, The Ex still wants to have two sets of rules for her kids based on their gender.  And by the way, if that's what The Ex truly believed was a valid excuse, then she has no reason to be mad at Husband for "cheating on her" like she tells everyone that he did.  If Husband actually did what she claims he did....well, he's a guy.  Why is she mad?) Daughter said she ended up going to her room and slamming the door.

  Last week, Daughter was again at her grandparents' and she got her period.  She knew that The Ex was coming over later to drop off her two younger kids, so Daughter asked her to bring some tampons.  The Ex apparently replied, "Tell your dad to get you some."  Daughter told her that Husband was two hours away, and asked how he was supposed to get her tampons.  The Ex came over later - no tampons.  This is bad enough by itself, but it gets worse.  I had assumed that The Ex just didn't want to go to the store and spend money; no, that was wrong.  They HAD tampons at Ned's house.  The Ex literally just refused to bring any to her own biological child because she was mad at her for who knows what.  This isn't hair dye, or a certain set of clothing, or nail polish, or something frivolous.  Daughter needs feminine products, and The Ex wouldn't provide them to her.

  After the camping debacle last week (You can read about it here.), Daughter ended up going with us because The Ex said that she could.  Before she left, The Ex asked her dad if he wanted to go to a movie on Saturday and then looked at Daughter and said, "Oh, that's right.  YOU'RE not going to be here.  I guess you can't go with us." (I seriously cannot believe what a horrible parent she is.)  Daughter went camping with us, I dropped her off on Sunday at her grandparents' place, and left.  The following night, The Ex came over to her parents' place with Ned and her two youngest kids.  Daughter said to her uncle, "Watch this; she's either going to start yelling at me, or she's going to ignore me."  The four of them walked in, Daughter said hi to The Ex, and was completely ignored.  Daughter continued trying to say hi and The Ex continued to ignore her.  Daughter said out loud, "What's the point of me even coming here?"  I'm not sure if Daughter tried saying hi once more, but she said The Ex snapped her head around and started yelling, "No, don't even talk to me!"  This erupted into an argument with The Ex telling Daughter that she "didn't know [Daughter] was going camping."

  Um...

  That was the text that The Ex sent to Husband two days before we went camping.  I literally have no idea how the hell she thinks she can just claim she didn't know.

  Daughter told The Ex that yes, she did know Daughter was going camping; she said they talked about it on and off all week.  Daughter pointed out that The Ex had texted Husband first, and said that Husband sent The Ex an email.  The Ex said, "I never got an email from your dad."  Daughter said she knew that Husband had emailed The Ex.  Daughter went on to point out that The Ex was even making plans without her on Saturday, so there's no way The Ex "didn't know" she was leaving.  The Ex must have thrown out her typical "Stay at your dad's" line, because Daughter told her, "You're the one always telling me to 'keep my ass at my dad's,' so if I don't show up here then you'll know where I am!"  At this point, The Ex went outside and sat in the car to pout.  The Ex's mom told Daughter (Get.  This.) that she ought to "go out there and apologize." (You've got to be shitting me.)  Daughter said she would go talk to The Ex after they both cooled down, but she wasn't apologizing anytime soon.  Eventually, Daughter did go out to talk to The Ex; she said during the conversation, The Ex admitted that she's supposed to be checking 2houses every day or every other day, but she only checks it once a month or every 2 months. (No surprise there.  I explained to Daughter how and why we have to use 2houses because things like this keep happening.)

  Yesterday, Daughter said that she and The Ex got into another fight.  She said The Ex's sister had called her, asking if she was coming home yesterday.  Daughter said no, she was spending the week here.  The sister claimed that The Ex thought that Daughter was supposed to get picked up, and said she needed to call The Ex.  Daughter called The Ex, who said she knew that Daughter wasn't coming back last night "but it would be nice if she did."  The Ex then started saying they were going out for Daughter's birthday.  Daughter said, "You're going out for my birthday when I'm not there??"  The Ex started listing off all the places they were planning to go this week; Daughter pointed out that The Ex was once again making plans without her.  The Ex said, "Well, you should just come live with me." (Daughter has been telling The Ex that she wants to spend more time here.  Why in the blue blazes would she want to move away from what makes her happy?!  Oh, that's right - because it would make The Ex happy, and that's all that matters.)  Daughter asked if she was just supposed to move away from all of her family and friends that live here.  The Ex started arguing with her, and then told her that her "only family here is [Husband]."  Daughter pointed out that Husband's sister and brother-in-law live here also, and that she's got friends who are like family to her.  They kept arguing and Daughter said finally, The Ex made some smart-ass remark and hung up on her.  Again.

  Shortly after Daughter told me all this, we were trying to make plans with friends and trying to arrange it so Daughter could also go.  I asked Daughter when The Ex was having their birthday party because we wouldn't do it that day.  Daughter texted her asking when the party was.  The Ex replied:
"Why, are you going to miss that too?"
  Daughter was so fed up at this point that she replied something along the lines of, "If you want me to, then sure."  She said to me, "Sorry, I'm a witch."  I told her no, she wasn't; her mother has a long history of doing things and then trying to make them feel bad for it, and she's getting tired of it.

  I just can't imagine treating people like this, much less my children.  Daughter isn't even my biological child and I would never even consider treating her this way; she has the biggest heart of anyone that I know.  She is smart, she is funny, she is confident, she is beautiful both on the outside and inside.  I'm not praising myself, but I am so grateful that I'm in Daughter's life so she at least has someone to be a relatively normal mother-figure for her.

  So to summarize:  The Ex is a horrible person.  She serves absolutely no purpose to anyone because she refuses to deal with her own damaged self, so she just keeps trying to break everyone else around her.