To think she was out of order?

[Atypicaldancer]

DH has had an acrimonious split with his ex wife , 6 years ago now. She had an affair and moved away with her new man and tried to stop him having contact with their two dc. He pursued this through the family courts and now we have the dc regularly. There was an expectation written in the court order that contact would increase as his youngest dc grew up, however his ex has always refused to agree or mediate in any way. Her family do things like running away from us in the street, even my children who are innocent parties in this.

DH and my ds, his stepson, have Covid. We informed ExW of course, as the step dc had been with us that weekend.

I felt fine - had a couple of glasses of wine yesterday evening and then developed a cough. DH managed to get me a PCR test that evening and drove me to the test centre. As we went through our village, EX W's mother saw our car, immediately got her phone out and took a photo. We then got a flurry of texts from ExW about how we were breaking the law, we're unfit to care for the dc etc etc and she was reporting us. DH obviously clarified by sending over the email of our test centre booking.

My test came back positive. I feel a bit rough and also quite angry. I feel harassed tbh - they are constantly looking for us to make mistakes that they can report. My Dd has recently been diagnosed with autism at the age of 16 and this was mentioned by ExW as a reason DH couldn't see his dc as she has 'complex special needs.' I'm just sick of it. Feel horrid as well which might be colouring my view, so I may BU.

There is no reason why you couldn't just fill in the forms and apply directly to the court for a hearing - save the cost of a solicitor unless money isn't an issue.
Living in the same village . Already have regular contact. Increased contact had been explicitly anticipated by the judge at first hearing .. increase will be automatic.

She is not 'the boss' of the kids. They have equal parental responsibility. Just fill the forms in ! (You'll probably get 50/50 if you ask and that will wipe out CMS which will serve the mother right ! and be in the child's best interest)

She sounds like a bloody nightmare! Try and keep your cool and document everything. Silly mare.

I agree she is trying to provoke you and hoping you will react in a way that benefits her argument to not increase contact.

As awful as it is, keep it all written down with any evidence you have and include dates/times/witnesses. Put it all forward to the judge at the hearing and afterwards log a claim for harassment. Maybe it might be worse for a bit, but if you ignore everything she does and just report it she will eventually realise it doesn’t get a reaction and just gets her in trouble.

We already have a court date. DH is thinking of representing himself but he’s not sure. His family will fund court for him if he chooses to go with a barrister.

I'd go with a barrister and try and secure the best possible outcome.

It’s a lovely village and the kids are settled in their schools here. Plus DH wants to be near his kids. It would be good not to feel stalked though

Any chance of moving just a little further away so you are not constantly in their eye line. Even just to another village or town close by so you can keep the children in school and then you can shop and go about your business without having to be constantly under someone’s gaze

Ultimately it doesn’t matter how pretty the village is if you feel harassed and stalked.
It just becomes a guilded cage

We can’t really move financially- we are two years into a five year fix. Plus DH’s ex is trying to argue that there have been many changes in DH’s life (marriage, stepchildren and living together) and that this means he shouldn’t have increased contact. We wouldn’t want to introduce another change. Though DH’s ex did move in with another man, move the kids nursery and schools 3 times and moved house 4 times! Plus this is my home, so I don’t want to have to leave because someone else is being unreasonable.