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Crazy Co-Parenting Schedules

BeachPlease's picture
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So my DH and his ex have been divorced for over 10 years. Their son was 3 or 4 at the time of the divorce. So the schedule to split custody was a lot of back and forth; understandable since he was very young. Like everyother weekend, then the opposite every other Monday and Thursday of the weekend, then every other Tues/Wednesday. Yeah, try to keep track of that...Well SS is 14 now. Even he, having lived it for 10 years, gets confused and goes to the wrong house after school a few times a month. On top of that, SS often asks to come to our house after school, even if it's not our day, so that he can play the gaming system he has here but not at BM's house. To make it even more complicated, BM and my DH will immediately swap days if one of them has a conflict one day - even if one of them is just working late there is a schedule change. (Yeah I know, he's 14 staying home by yourself for a few extra hours shouldnt be such a fiasco but BM still calls him by a baby nickname - he doesn't object - and seems unaware he is headed to high school next year.) So the schedule is constatnly changing. I have asked, begged and pleaded with DH to please give me a summary of the week as to which days SS will be with us. To no avail. Or DH will say he told me, i think i am going crazy bc I do not recall many of these times. So I am constantly scrambling at dinner. I didn't prepare enough food or prepared too much that will then go to waste. Not to mention I just think it's courteous to let me know who to expect at our house and when. 

I suggested to DH he and BM discuss possibly doing a 3/4/4/3 schedule or even full weeks at a time he says he will work on asking BM to consider it. After a few months, he worked up the courage to ask her. That was a few months ago. She is still 'thinking about it'. I actually believe she likes the chaos the current schedule creates. They (DH and BM) text at least several times a day. DH says he has asked her to try to involve SS for some of this stuff rather than DH but she has just opted to group text. Now there are more messages and at all hours of the day or night. I asked him to please ask her to not text after 9pm (I like to consider this our time since SS goes to bed then) and not before 7am unless it is a real emergency. I actually think this backfired and she will now text at 6 am or 10 or 11 pm. I have no idea if it's an emergency or not. I'm not privy to those messages. DH protects her and their relationship like his life depends on it.  

IDK what to do anymore. I am pretty tired of being 3rd in line for his attention. 

Rumplestiltskin's picture

This was my SO's life before I came along and said HELL NO. Idk how long you have put up with this BS, and if it's been years of you just keeping quiet and "rolling with the flow", it will likely be harder to change. I put up with it for about a few months, and when I discovered the depth of their dysfunction, I just couldn't deal. My SO has changed to a week-on/week-off, with changes only when there's a damn good reason (BM wants to go shopping isn't one.) It wasn't easy and it took me walking out of a dinner i cooked after BM walked into the house without knocking, plopped her a$$ down at the table without looking at me, and started eating off SS's plate. No way should you have to deal with calls and texts between your DH and BM at all hours of the day and night, especially when what they are talking about affects you and you aren't allowed to know what's going on. Hill to die on. It will probably take marriage counseling to undo this tangled web of shite. 

Winterglow's picture

Stop doing anything for your dh or his son. He is behaving as if he had no obligations ... See how he likes it when you do the same.

Not your monkey...

Survivingstephell's picture

He needs to be more afraid of YOU than BM.  Make it very difficult for everyone when they forget to include you in the plans.  Didn't make enough food? That's what you get for not telling me , here's a coupon for fast food.   Disrupt our date night? No nookie for you.  Plan your life and stop making adjustments.  Don't tell him of your new rules just implement them.  Let him feel the pain of choosing BM over you.  Men caught up in pleasing an ex need to be shown the error of their ways in the most extreme way.  At 14, SS would probably do best with week on week off schedule.  Might stop the bed wetting too you posted about before.  Stability is a good thing and you are right that BM gets off on the chaos.  Disordered people are like that.  

Cover1W's picture

Take yourself out of the crazy then. If you don't know he's coming then don't scramble to cook more for them. Your DH will have to figure it out. No re-scheduling cancelled plans or suddenly having to change them. Plan for yourself only - your DH can plan everything else. You don't drive, make extra work for yourself or anything! 

When my YSDalmost17 pretty much ended her regular week on/off schedule with the parent's apparent blessings, I was frustrated like you were. Then I just stopped. I don't help at all any longer, partly due to this unpredicable timing. DH has to shop, cook and clean up after her when she's here. He has to plan stuff. There's more to it and you will likely find that out too but this is your start.

JRI's picture

I know I'm old school, but when I read about some of these co-parenting schedules you guys have, I really don't know how you do it.  We initially had the 3 SKs every weekend and most of the summer and the transition period was bad enough, I'd hate to think if it had been any more complex than that.

I suppose the co-parenting schedules give the kids a fairer access to dad but it must be tough.

ndc's picture

I would think that at 14 a week on/week off schedule would be age appropriate.  Or 2/2/5/5 if you wanted consistency on weeknights for job or activities purposes. Schedules where the days keep changing or the parents keep swapping days are crazy for a kid that age - there's no need for that kind of chaos. 

Since you've expressed your thoughts to H and he hasn't managed to do anything about it, you might try full disengagement and cooking for 2 every single night until DH figures out whose needs he should be catering to. 

 

Rumplestiltskin's picture

You might also try to get your DH to consider that bouncing around at the whims of his parents, never knowing where he will be sleeping on any given night, is probably not good for SS. If he seems immature for his age and doesn't have the same social and self-sufficiency skills of his peers, it may be due to the lack of structure in his life. 

BeachPlease's picture

Makes complete sense! I do notice SS is very immature and from a social and self-sufficiency perspective as well. I worry that his friends might start to disengage from him since he is so much socially younger than they are. Likely that also contributes to his seeming lack of ability to feed and take care of himself unless someone tells him to. Do most 14yo need to be told time to take a shower, comb your hair before school, looks like your laundry bin is full - better do laundry (then cannot for anything remember to switch the loads-has to be reminded his laundry is ready to be switched/folded)? DH acts like that is 'normal teenage' stuff. IDK, I had a daughter who was into sports so eating healhty meals/snack and regular showers were never anything I had to remind her to do from about age 8 on. The chaos of remembering where to go after school likely does contribute to that. Thank you for the eye-opener.

Winterglow's picture

That poor kid! Not only is he treated like a baby but he's passed around as if he were an object that simply needs to be placed somewhere, kicked around like a football. How on earth can he be expected to function normally? After TEN years of this nonsense, he's still confused about it. How about his parents grow up and start to take their son into consideration when they are happily switching days around to facilitate THEIR schedules and lives? How about they try to make life more comfortable for him? Do they seriously expect him to get through high school while living in total chaos? How will he ever get his homework done? Gawd! Have they no respect for their child?! How is he ever going to gain any self-respect if he thinks he isn't even worthy of consideration by his own parents?

OP, I don't know how you do it because YOU are being disrespected too. Your husband should be ashamed of giving priority to his ex-wife over his actual wife. It's time he started turning his phone off at night and switching it back on again in the morning. She won't die. Don't forget to switch yours off too because that's the next thing she'll do - call you. Simply stop making dinner. Point to the bread and the sliced meat/cheese/whatever to make themselves a sandwich when they get home. Not your responsibility.

 

Rumplestiltskin's picture

This is how my SO's son lived for 10 years. Never knew where he was sleeping on any given night. BM "I want to go shopping/out to a bar/on vacation! YOU take him!" Then SO "I have to go to work/workout/do hobbies - (to his older kids/his parents/whatever woman he was dating) YOU take him!" Then whichever of those who was watching him would try to discipline him because his behavior was an atrocity. SO would come home, SS would make this sad little face and could sometimes produce tears. SO "Look at his sad little face! How can you make him sit in the corner/write lines/take away his electronics?" SO would then give SS some kind of reward, fuss at whoever was watching him for free, that person would eventually stop watching him, and the cycle would start all over. At 11, SS couldn't ride a bike or tie his shoes. In trouble at school. Few friends because the other parents in the neighborhood stopped allowing him over due to his behavior. I tried with him for a few months but eventually realized how it was going to go. It wasn't SS's fault, and I feel bad for him. But - I know that me trying to step in and parent him isn't going to work. 

Winterglow's picture

How awful. Imagine feeling that neither of your parents, the people who are supposed to love you the most in the world, can't be bothered with you, don't want you underfoot, and are dying to get rid of you. My heart hurts for kids in that situation. I also feel bad for steps who have to watch it all go down. 

simifan's picture

Let DH know you are not happy with being left out of your home's routines & you are going to do something about it, even if he won't. Start putting yourself first, right now. Do your own thing - if DH can schedule without consulting you. You have the same autonomy. Make dates with Girlfriends, go to the gym, hang out @ the coffee shop, take a class. Anything not to be at home during this chaos.  

Let DH know he is stunting SS's growth & you won't live with a non-functioning adult. How does he expect SS to go to college in 4 years if he has no independence. What is his plan for SS to leave the nest when he can't even remember where to be on a regular basis? 

shamds's picture

Afternoon from college or university. Hubby never told me and i made him give me a heads up. Ss would always notify hubby last minute like an hour or so before ss was due to arrive home. 
 

before that i just did my routine as normal. I didn't go out of my way to cook for him especially because he always bought take away. I just cooked what me hubby and our 2 kids ate.

I remember when our daughter was over a yr old and eating solids and ss told off his dsd why is she eating solids like i'm a bad mum and hubby told him she's been on solids since months ago and toddlers eat veggies etc too- that shut ss up

i cooked food for 3-4 people most days and often there was some leftover that we'd keep in fridge, it was upto ss to reheat.

there were some times hubby requested i make a special dish for ss to which I immediately replied with "No!! I don't go out of my way to make rude, selfish and disrespectful people feel welcome or special when they treat us like crap and it was real selfish and rude of hubby to demand this of me" that shut hubby up real quick

Rags's picture

Or at least one who can and will effectively manage the baggage.

If you will not move on, at the very least shut off notifications.  How hard is it to turn off notifications during your stipulated black out times?  Make that happen. Make DH shut his off too.

Leave BM hanging and make sure she is on the hook for child care if she will not contact DH during reasonable hours.

 

Rags's picture

and the visitation schedule. Co-parenting really does not have to have anything to do with the specific visitation schedule.

Co-parenting IMHO is more about aligning on the behavioral aspects of parenting than it is about who does what and when.

Each parent is responsible for the care, feeding, and trasport of the COD when the COD is with that parent.

IMHO of course.

Rumplestiltskin's picture

I actually detest the word "coparenting." It's like people use it to justify this wishy-washy enmeshed lifestyle. If you want to actually parent your child together with your ex, like in the same house, you should get back together with them. People try to justify the need for all this coparenting togetherness like they are only doing it for the kids. If the kids are truly your everything, the best thing you can do for them is give them an intact family, especially if you still enjoy your ex's company. 

Rags's picture

They can care for and parent the failed family children on their own time as they see fit.

A CO provides the frame work and both sides need to leave the other side the hell alone IMHO.

If either side over steps, it should be game on and the pain should be immediate and profound.

As for the COD kids.... they can adapt to the environment of the home they are in per the visitation schedule.

Enmeshment does no one any good. Particularly the kids.

IMHO of course.