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Continuous Custody battle - 14 years and going

stepfamily222's picture

So recently my SD mother has taken my husband back to court for more custody. They have not been in court since 2016 and this started in 2021 she is asking for more time with SD 14 because she feels that she can take her to more sports etc. then we can. The backstory on that is that she has signed her up for pretty much everything under the sun which makes it impossible for us to be able to do all of it considering we have a total of four children and two businesses. At first travel volleyball was a point of contention because we said no because we said realistically we can't make this happen but somehow SD 14 and her mother won that battle so we caved and started doing travel volleyball. Then it turned into wanting to play two consecutive sports during a school season so for example  Volleyball and soccer together while that merged into starting to play for travel volleyball and travel volleyball season and she wanted to also play school basketball. Whenever my husband says no somehow he gets brow beat it until we cave and say yes so in this case we said if you can find rides to your school basketball then fine so her mother stepped up and started taking her to some of the practices but that intern got used against us and the mother started saying well since she is the one taking her to most of the things that she should be there for the majority of the custodial time. Everything we say and do gets used against us and we try to make SD 14 happy but she works closely with her mother even though she loves my husband and her family here she just feels that she can get more at her mothers. My husband had his mediation like his fifth mediation yesterday and the mother is pushing now for more communication which we are on our family wizard and got that set up in September because she has always been so difficult we have not been able to speak to her via phone or text messages we only kept it to email but that was getting too crazy too because of her tone she's always so condescending and terrible so we pushed for our family wizard mainly because she refused to communicate with me so I ignored her for about three years and let my husband and her deal with each other but then she started saying she wanted to communicate with me to which really just means she wants to browbeat me so that I know my place but I've been communicating with her through our family wizard and it's mainly me as the mother and the woman in the household that asks the majority of questions and things that need to be done while my husband is running machinery and running businesses but this is a problem to her too she wants only him to be answering her back as a majority and she wants him to be taking her to all of her things even though she has signed her up for so many things it's unrealistic but that was part of her goal and the mediator basically was like it sounds like to me she has good grades and understands her schedule I don't see a reason and switching household but this was the angle but the mother was taking. She also is now pushing for coparenting counseling between her my husband and SD 14. It seems Ludacris to me that a married man with four children of almost 10 years and two businesses would have to go to count coparenting classes with his baby mom that he was with her year. Help. 

Comments

Winterglow's picture

Stat by stopping all contact between you and BM. There is no reason for any conversations between you. OFW is clearly working if she's pushing for more contact :) 

Nothing will change until yoiur husband stops giving in to her whims and demands, nothing. She can browbeat nobody if she's blocked on all media and only has OFW left to communicate with. . 

notsurehowtodeal's picture

There is no reason for you to communicate with BM. As you have figured out, she only did it so she could be mean to you. Stop all communication with her now. Your DH needs to step up and quit giving in on things. He should follow the CO exactly as it is written. He should only use Family Wizard for communication unless it is an absolute emergency. And yes, I agree with you, there is no reason for therapy for the three of them.

What is the current custody schedule?

stepfamily222's picture

The current custody schedule is 2 2 3. So 50% equal custody. She is filing forsole decision making, as well as wants more communication with strictly DH & pushing for the counseling courses for her, DH to communicate better. She's 14 years into unable to communicate without being problematic and mentally abusive to DH and sd14 but she's brainwashed her by now although sometimes sd14 has come To us telling us her mother is terrible to her about her relationships with her dad, me, her siblings, interogates her, isn't happy for her. She's been a problem forever. We tried taking her on a 2 week vaca to Nantucket and her mother made my husband go through nearly 65 emails to finally get the approval yes. I told my husband to take back comtrol!!!!

Harry's picture

And travel teams.  What are expenses and time consuming.  But a lot of parents think of travel teams as party time.  They go to a hotel.  Drink with the other parents all night .  And maybe the kids have fun.   If you want to be involved with your SD you have to go along with her wants.   You can't keep saying NO , Come for your visitation and sit on your iPhone.  Yiou have to make time. 
Did DH Have SD to have to " considering we have a total of four children and two businesses. ". for SD to do nothing .

stepfamily222's picture

We are not nearly saying do nothing we are saying pick some thing right now she is wanting to play two consecutive school sports plus travel volleyball plus pick the most expensive high school in the state plus travel team is also the most expensive travel team that there is she says she does not want to get a job because she wants to focus on travel team and sports there is never the answer no so I think that what I said maybe misconstrued what your understanding but we pretty much don't say no to anything ever

grannyd's picture

Hey, stepfamily222,

Counselling including your husband, his daughter and his ex-wife is beyond ridiculous! The woman is clearly a control freak who is doing her utmost to interfere in both your marriage and in your husband’s relationship with his daughter. No, No, NO, to that meddlesome suggestion! As far as I’m concerned, your major relationship problem is the direct result of a husband who shows obvious bias to his oldest child, detracting from the attention due to his littles. 

The expense in both time and money required to support a teen involved in excess sports, particularly travel sports, is bound to deprive the 3 younger children of the resources that they deserve. I see so much of this discrepancy on StepTalk! 

Far too often, divorced and remarried fathers behave in this unjust way; ranking the child/children of their failed marriages above any subsequent children. This behaviour is damaging to both the children of the second marriage, who are made to feel ‘less than’ and to the children of divorce who, placed on a pedestal and seldom corrected when misbehaving, acquire an attitude of entitlement.

Also, according to one of your previous blogs, your husband has reprimanded you in front of his teen when you corrected her; a huge error on his part, giving the girl far too much power and letting her know that you’re irrelevant! If I were you, I would not do a thing to prevent BM from gaining more time with her brat of a daughter. Having the teen spend less time with you and your children would be a bonus all around! Hon, disengagement is your friend. Custody is your husband's problem to solve.

stepfamily222's picture

I agree 100% but when I don't get involved somehow sd14 and her mother widdle DH down and he caves. I have to prove my points or else everything is a yes and our whole house pays the price by having to run everywhere, DH never home and littles barely get to see him, not to mention SS9 from selerate relationship also only sees DH half the time and he suffers as well, then our two littles together 3 and 5 miss out on time too or we are driving all over creation for SD14 who's never heard no 

stepfamily222's picture

& to touch on thjs, she isn't even his ex wife. She got pregnant and they were together for a total of anoit a year and 5 months after sd14 was born.