im wondering if anyone else is going through a similar situation or has any wise words of wisdom.. my ex husband and I have been separated for 6 years - divorced for 5 years. There was a lot of very unreasonable behaviour and I was at the end of my tether towards the end of the marriage, I had no option but to end it. We have two children together who are now age 12 and 9. The ex continues to be difficult, resentful and completely alienates me when he has the children, not facilitating phone calls with me and telling me not to come to his house etc yet when I have the kids he calls when he likes. He has brought 3 court cases against me, each time trying to get more time with the children. We have a contact order in place- at first he had the children 5 nights in 14, then it went up to 6 in 14. The arrangement doesn’t work well. items of clothing , school books etc are always being left at his house and the kids are left without them as he doesn’t bother returning them… he is very unreliable when it comes to taking the kids to their sporting activities and out with their friends… they won’t say a bad thing about their dad and I have tried to pick up the slack where I can. I am run ragged trying to make sure they’re looked after and trying to squeeze doctors appointments , homeworks , socialising etc in to the time I have them. I feel that I over compensate and go above and beyond to give them everything, but still they would tell me how wonderful their dad is and I don’t feel I get the acknowledgement or appreciation that he does. I don’t mind that most of the time but sometimes it can hurt. I met a new partner about 4 years ago- we now have a baby and this relationship is very happy. The 5 of us live together in a blended family and we all have a good relationship. I did not plan to meet someone else so soon after we split but it happened. My ex resents him and resents me and seems to be hell bent on making our lives difficult. Because the children have not been taught by their dad to respect their mum (in fact they have witnessed him disrespect and argue with me or completely ignore me on a regular basis I feel that they sometimes follow his lead and blame me for things. I am finding it all very difficult. Family and friends keep telling me that when they are older they will see things more clearly but I don’t know if that’s true. Has anyone been in this situation and is now out the other side of it with grown up children? Co- parenting / parallel parenting with someone who is so difficult really takes its toll. I feel very stressed on a daily basis about it all and it feels like it will never end. He seems to want to control every aspect of their lives and they seem to allow it. It’s very hard to sit by and watch and feel so helpless.