Desperate for advice. BF has 50% custody, it's ruining my life!!
10 years ago
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- 10 years ago
- 10 years ago
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Joint custody disruptions due to distance
Comments (35)I am not the judgmental type, and I really believe you never know the reasons for someone else's decisions until you walk in their shoes (if you ever even can). I also do not consider myself terribly naive. But I have wondered time and again why my BF's EX did what she did. By that I mean, have an affair, decide to leave her husband after getting a new mortgage and breastfeeding second daughter, ransack the house while BF was at work and leave a mess in front of her daughters, use BF's inheritance money to move them several states away, secretly remarry, and buy and subsequently have to sell several houses and have the kids change schools because she and new hubby did not plan their budget well. I have wondered to the point where it is unreasonable of me - some things do not and should not make sense. Her actions are, of course, more of a function of her personality and whatever she felt the situation was than the fact she is a bio-mom or whatever other role she may fall into. If someone has a history of displaying weak, selfish behavior, the same can be expected in the future. Even if she despised her husband, anyone who knows him could see what a devoted, capable and attentive father he is. It is really a shame to have moved so far away for the convenience of having built-in babysitters in the form of relatives. I am always shocked to hear when her plans for bringing them north every other month (per court order) inevitably "don't work out" that she tells them, "I don't know why you can't see your dad - ask him to explain." Whenever I enter into an agreement with someone, if I am compelled to leave it I do so with dignity and respect for all involved. The saddest thing was when his older daughter at the age of 8 said to us, "Mom said she left you so that she could finally be happy in life. But she still doesn't seem happy to me." Kids should not be burdened with worrying about these things. I am a child of divorce and I remember the pain well....See MoreThinking of Moving in together - Advice re BF's son
Comments (37)--"When son pouts because he doesn't like the food, BF is the one who will say go to your room, then son says no, I'll be good and then BF changes his mind and doesn't make him go. Then two seconds later son does the same thing again, BF says go to your room, again, son says noooooo, BF backs off again. Then a few minutes MORE minutes pass, BF sees son making a face again or not eating the food. He says "go to your room" AGAIN, son says "noooooooooo" BF AGAIN backs off, AGAIN. "-- The son has learned that his father is all mouth and no action. Why would son jump up and run to his room? Kid knows father is not serious, even if dad means it when it pops out of his mouth he is not going to mean it two seconds later. Actually if me I might just reach over and remove child's plate adding that 'well, we'd certainly not want to poison you so it was your choice, be polite and eat or sit there hungry until the rest of us are finished'. I myself have a picky eater but I've learned to work around her...look up some of the threads about refusing to eat and pouting over food here, there are lots. Is the food really something he hates or just not what he wants to eat? Is the food when you and the girls come over different then the food BF and son eat when you are not there? Another thought, does BF and son even eat meals at the table when you and girls are not present? Last thought on this table/food bit...does son even realize he is making faces? And when Dad first announces 'go to your room', does Dad state why child is being told to leave table and go to room? I have a pencil/foot tapper, half the time he is not even aware he is doing it...in school teacher must state '______ please stop tapping _______'. If she/he announces 'stop that', my son was like 'stop what, I didn't do anything'. LOL. Once teacher learned how to address the offense things got much better between teacher/son. My son is ADD, not ADHD and he went through his high school years non-meds. It was only during his grade shcool years he needed a bit of medication assistance during school hours. Not saying this child is ADD/ADHD but reading what you're saying and how you are presenting it flashes imagines of my oldest son back to me during his preteen years....See MoreNon Custodial Mom Has Moved Out of State-Help!!
Comments (3)This may or may not be applicable. Dunno. My wife has a BM that has a, shall we say, hit-and-miss relationship with reality. Not dangerous per se, but she tends to be very selective about her memories, and is only occaisionally reliable in crises -- unless you count being unreliable as a strange form of reliability. My wife is 30 years old. She's known her mom for...well, 30 years. However, she gets suckered into trusting her mom on a semi-regular basis during critical situations, and nearly every time, she's burned all over again. Why? I think that my wife has confused the job description -- "Mommy" -- with the real person, let's call her "Ms. X". "Mommy" is supposed to be able to do the occaisional favor for her grandchildren -- say, be able to pick them up from a bus station on time. "Ms. X" on the other hand, runs out of gas on the freeway after misplacing luggage in the station. (I'm making this up, but you get the drift.) People shouldn't be forced into having to "handle" their parents. However, this is the situation your SS is in. Life has given him a BM that needs to be treated like a bank -- "it sure would be nice if my check was processed in the next 3 days, but I need to plan like they're not only going to take a week and a half, but also like they're going to lose it at least once in the process." He needs to be able to separate his expectations of the job description from the expectations he should have for his specific real mom. And he needs to learn the hard lesson that if people act the way we expect them to act, then any problems we have with that are our own lookout (to the extent that he as a 10 year old has control over his own actions, and his contact with his mom). All of the above are ways to help him understand his situation, and to protect himself from inflicting further probs on himself through selective memory or "maybe this time" kinds of thinking -- I really don't have any useful advice about "how to make him happy". Maybe he *needs* to be unhappy with it, in order to avoid repeating these behaviors with his own family sometime down the line. Maybe he should draw up a real description of the duties of the job "Mommy", and see if he'd hire his BM for that job. If not, see if someone is already doing the job. (Like, say, you.) If there's any lack, maybe you could offer to subcontract. Or see if there's any other available subcontractors.... I'm being facetious, but only a little. Your SS *knows* he can't trust his mom. He should be angry over it, but realize that life sometimes stinks. He needs to figure out how far she has allowed herself to be loved, love her just that much if he cares to, and no more -- or if more, to realize and accept the consequences he's buying in to. And he needs to realize that 'momhood' does not reside only with her. It can also reside with you, or with other folks in his life....See MoreIn desperate need of advice on letting go...
Comments (4)If the relationship with the 10 year old has disintegrated (you mention a custody battle), then he has probably chosen sides with his mom... plus you have younger children with DH so that may have added impact so, unless you want to build up the relationship with him (and it doesn't sound like that's the case) and your DH is having a hard time maintaining a relationship with him, maybe the best thing to do is focus on your kids (a new baby is time consuming) and let your DH deal with his kids when they visit. Take your kids to the park & let his kids do their own laundry or cook for themselves. They are old enough & if your DH wants to keep them coming... more for financial reasons... then leave him to deal with them. The cost to your marriage is higher than the extra child support. It's too bad when the parents force kids to take sides or let money be a deciding factor in visitation and essentially, their relationship with their children. Parents are supposed to do what's best for their kids but we all know that isn't reality. At this point, you are married to him & you have kids with him. Your job is to do what's best for YOUR kids (and realize that he has allowed his relationship with his other kids to become what it is... irregardless of his ex's, HE has allowed it) Don't allow it to ever happen with YOUR kids. Those other mothers are not doing what's best for their kids if she allows, or worse ~ encourages, the breakdown in relationship from 1. the dad. and 2. the stepmom that wanted to have a good relationship with them. and 3. the siblings. She is hurting her children if she in any way encourages them to not have the best relationship they can with their dad and/or to have the best time at dad's house. What mother in their right mind would send their child off to a situation where the child is going to be treated, well I don't want to say bad but why would they want to create hostility or piss off dad/stepmom or turn kids against anyone in that home & then send their kid there?...See More- 10 years ago
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