I’m not even sure there’s anything I can do…..
I split with ex 10 years ago. Used to have 50/50 contact and about 5 years ago, it changed to 60/40, although his girlfriend did most of the parenting as he worked away.
Ex decided to move 150 miles away about 2 years ago, following someone he was having an affair with. He then went down to having the kids 4 days a month. Eldest DD (16) took it badly, especially as he was spending all his time with new girlfriend’s children.
I used to remain fairly civil with ex and we talked lots. I stopped talking to him last year when it became clear that he’d abandoned his children for another woman. He has been fuming ever since, like literally raging that I won’t speak to him. He tried to keep DD at his in October and enrol her in a school there, saying she wanted to live with him. I refused as she is in year 11 and managed to get her home. He told me ‘this is what happens when we don’t speak’ and then agreed with her going back. My younger child has told me that since then he has been trying to emotionally blackmail them both to live with him, lots of ‘if you love and miss your dad, why don’t you move up here’. Youngest is having none of it, but eldest DD lap it all up and has now stated (as she has finished her GCSEs) that she is moving to be with him to do her A Levels. I am beyond gutted. She is leaving her friends, a potential boyfriend who she has liked for ages, me, her aging grandparents, her sibling and two younger brothers who she dotes on to be with him. I will hardly be able to see her as it’s a 6 hour round trip to go and get her and come back, plus I’d then have to return her again. I can’t afford it and can’t keep my young children in the car for that length of time. I can’t believe he would be so cruel and selfish to do this to everyone. What should I be doing? Anything? I’m so devastated