My husband's ex has been very manipulative since the divorce. She control's the time my husband spends with his son anyway she wants. My husband has tried going to mediation several times since they got divorced 5 years ago. As soon as the mediator sees the ex games and realizes how irrational she is many times she changes mediators.

When his ex wants something she seems really nice and willing to cooperate, but when she doesn't get something she wants, she starts making a big deal for every single little thing.

My stepson seems to be following her example because when he doesn't get his way he throws tantrums.

My husband is very patient and doesn't want to rock the boat but I can't stand seeing his ex manipulating my husband and my husband spoiling rotten his son because he fears his ex's reaction. I hate the fact that his entire family is so afraid of her that even my mother-in-law told me to stay away from discipling my stepson.

I told my husband to take her back to court to request more parenting time since she has told him that she will allow him to see his son more time but of course, that depends on her mood. At first my husband agreed with me and said that he would take her to court. I looked up some names of lawyers to request free consultations but now my husband says that he feels bad taking her to court and that would hurt his ex's feelings. He says this because she has allowed him to be at her house for my stepson's birthday so he feels they're making progress.

I'm more than willing to support my husband to get more time to be his son, even if we have to sacrifice our budget. What I won't be willing to do is sit and watch how he doesn't do anything to fight for his son and be at his ex mercy.

This is bothering me so much because I only see getting worse as my stepson gets older (he's 8 now) as he's showing signs of manipulation games already and I don't think I can tolerate it.

At times I don't feel that we are going to be able to work through this because I can't stand seeing my husband being played like this and I know I can't change him.