Constant upset for children on contact weekends

[Trinab75]

Hello,

I have not been on here for years, but received alot of useful advice and support when trying to end my 15 year relationship with emotionally/verbally abusive Ex partner, whom I have 2 boys with age 6 and 12.

2 years on and I have moved on with my life and all I went through is now becoming a distant and less painful memory, that is until the boys have contact with him and then it all rears it's ugly head again.

The arrangement we have (at his request) is for him to see the boys Wednesday evenings and alternate weekend for Friday after school until Sundays at 7pm.

The problem is that most contact results in him being horrid/abusive with one or the other of the boys and them being left upset.

Typical examples are: Calling our 12 year old gay all over Christmas and constantly criticising his hair appearance ect, until he was left in tears.
In February after he upset our 6 year old by threatening to leave him alone in a room and then called him a baby for crying about it, this was because my son said he didn't feel like going to watch a football match. Following this he stormed off taking the eldest and left the youngest at home. When he returned my eldest son there was an altercation, as I wanted to close the door on his shouting, so he booted the door and hurt my hand before calling me a retard.

As this was an ongoing problem I took legal advice and my solicitor wrote to him advising him to address his behaviour or risk no contact.

There has been little contact since then for numerous reasons, mostly due to his social arrangements. Therefore this weekend was the first substantial contact with both boys in a month. It started with him protesting about the weather, therefore I walked through the snow and delivered the boys to him. He then went on to protest about me sending my eldest as he had a cough, this was followed by my eldest calling and texting saying that his Dad thought it best to come back home, so that he wasn't keeping his brother awake all night. I advised my eldest he was with his Dad for the first time in a month and therefore his Dad needed to look after him until it was time to come home. Things quietened down then, but obviously I was left feeling worried that my eldest was getting grief about having a cough.

The boys returned at 7ish with their Dad ranting about my eldests behaviour and saying that he needed to tow the line or not come down etc. I reminded him that he couldnt have one child and not the other and that he needed to be able to parent through good times as well as bad and then he started yelling and it turned into the usual argument about how badly behaved he thinks the kids are. My eldest later told me it started as he had forgotten to close the lounge door behind him, then didn't put a cup away, so he got yelled at, went upstairs to get away and got yelled at even more.

My problem is I feel torn as despite the upsets with their Dad the boys want to seeing him. It's killing me seeing them being treat so badly and exhausting keep trying to pick up the pieces, as there seems to be an incident at every contact weekend. However stopping contact would be equally as devastating and destructive for them. My eldest was in bits earlier as his Dad had told him that if he told me there had been an upset, I would stop contact and it is not what he wants.

Has anyone been an a similar situation and found a way forward? Or do I resign myself to the fact that there is no way forward and just keep trying to piece them back together after contacts?

[cjel]

I think it should be law that all twunts only deal with contact centres and solicitors and leave mums and dcs outs of the drama, they only get told the final resolution!!

[DollyTwat]

It's a cycle. You can google the cycle of abuse, but there seems to be a few extra bits you add on for exFW regarding contact.

Three times we've had the drama over him having to move as he can't afford his flat (because of the evil csa)
Then he got offered a chance to go on the road with his band, which he ended up turning down

So what happens is that there's some reason he doesn't want the dc, so a drama is caused. He then says he doesn't want them, is probably moving away anyway etc. then contact builds slowly, when it suits him of course. Then I insist it's regular.

It goes along ok for a while. He commits to more contact and even pick ups etc. then there's a drama. And we start again

It's exhausting!
Your ex is following the twunt script perfectly!

It must be more exhausting being them though.

[Trinab75]

I have been mistakenly drawn in to conversations after my ex went through his split. I tried not to engage, but my empathy outweighed my reason when he was going through the worst of it. It's too easily done.

At least the Facebook drama diverted some of his attention away from his family day out idea I guess? Twunt island gets my vote, you should put the idea forward on dragons den :)

Yes I agree cjel, I hoped the last solicitors letter was the final resolution, but sadly not. I have kept me and the kids out of the way today though, as he told me he was calling by at 3pm with eggs, which I knew wouldn't end well.

I need a good nights sleep to finally shake this bug off. So that I can think clearly about what do do next. It's his brothers wedding in 2 weekends time and I hope the boys can still take part in that as planned, but that means spending the weekend with him. If I push for no contact he will use that as an excuse to upset the boys and say they can't go to that and that it's my fault, so I need to tread carefully.

[Trinab75]

Yes it's exhausting!I've only had 6 months of it to this extent, I don't intend on having another 6 months of it. I know it will stop for a while when he finds a mate again as he is always super nice to the kids around new people. But I don't wish to inflict him on anyone else for our benefit.

I'm thinking trying a solicitors letter stating less contact and 2 overnights a month as a starting point. Or stopping contact altogether (other than the wedding) until he proposes a contact agreement.

Well done you survivng many years of this crap. How old are your children, have they adapted to the chaos?

[cjel]

Have a good nights rest and peaceful sleepx

[DollyTwat]

Getting a formal agreement is definitely the way to go. Although you can't make HIM stick to it it is a good foundation.

I'd say I engaged way too much with the drama in the early years, like a moth to a flame. I just couldn't leave that text or email unanswered. I felt I had to correct all the shit he was coming out with. So I ignore most of it now. I just talk about contact. It's hard - I can't say I always achieve not engaging

My dc are 8 and 11. They are ok but go through phases of not wanting to see him. Ds1's behaviour is a problem, possibly his age but its not easy

[ozzywiz]

I agree with Dolly, the best reaction is no action and bite your tongue. . choose your arguments wisely. ..

[Fleecyslippers]

I too have learned that he/OW want a reaction - he is not allowed to contact me directly so she emails and texts now (or he texts DD direct) I do find that ignoring a lot of the crap helps - they definately lose momentum if they don't get an argument - I can imagine the pair of them pacing and punching keyboards in a bid to get me to bite My stock response now is 'Contact is as per the contact order'

[Trinab75]

Thank you all for helping to confirm my poor worn out thoughts.

I think another solicitors letter is called for, if only to re enforce to him that despite his fury and mocking me for involving her previously that I will follow through attempts to establish and maintain boundaries and routine if contact is to continue.

My 12 year old's behaviour is problematic from time to time too, but it's little wonder with all he's been through and it is a tricky age. Although I frequently remind him that it is no excuse to lower his own standards of behaviour. It annoys me that I'm far from the pushover my ex makes me out to be and I am quite strict. Not the pushover he makes me out to be (although the kids have had run of the house all weekend whilst I have not been on form)

I am quite a pro at the no reaction way of dealing with him now, but it's taken a very long time to get there and he still catches me off guard occasionally like he did last weekend. It's finally clicked that my not responding to his horrid jibes are the best insult. I'm surprised I still have a tongue left from all the biting.

Maybe we should start a thread for all the responses we would like to/should send on but don't and get it all out!

[DollyTwat]

Trinab you were supposed to respond to his text about seeing only dc2
That's what he wanted. I don't know about you, but I'm a pretty straight forward person so it's hard to see the texts for what they really are.

If you'd have just texted 'OK' I wonder what would have happened?

I could post texts here that would have you raging!
I just laugh now as its the only thing I can do!

I think the one that made me laugh the most was about how exFW had got himself caught between a rock and a hard place. If he gets a job he'll have to pay csa, but the government are taking money off him (for being a scrounger). He then, in all seriousness, complained he hadn't had a holiday for years.

I couldn't resist a reply. ' a holiday from what?'

He gave up his job to avoid paying the csa you see!