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Parenting

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Ex and his Mum - its long!

5 replies

porkarooney · 12/10/2010 17:27

Not sure if this is best place to post so sorry if wrong.

To try and cut a long story short me and my ex split almost 3 years ago when dd was almost 2. Apart from a few teething problems we have always got on fairly amicably (we're even going to parents eve together next week!) I have since got married and dd lives with me and dh whilst ex has her every other weekend which works out fine.

The problem is his Mum. Last year some problems cropped up just before i was due to get married regarding exs sister, his mum and a friend of mine. DD is fairly close to my friend and I had reason to believe that my exs mum and his sister were bad mouthing my friend in front of dd which i was obviously concerned about. I tried several times (8 in total) to talk to his mum about it only to be met with refusal that she wouldn't talk to me as she didn't think it was necessary. This really upset me as I felt i couldn't express my concerns and I was made to feel like my point wasn't valid. She's a very hard woman and very opinionated but within the 10 years of knowing her I had always got on ok with her. So I took everything to heart then got upset about it and said she couldn't see dd (she had been seeing dd for a few hours on a tues pm) until she would talk to me and get it sorted out. In hindsight I knew it was wrong to say this but when your upset you do stupid things!

I tried to talk to my ex as well but was met with the same answer - he didn't want to discuss it.

Next thing I know I get 2 solicitor letters throught the post on the same day, one from ex and one from his mum claiming i had stopped all contact with dd from happening and if i didn't resume then I would be taken to court. It even said in his mums letter that the reason she wouldn't talk to me was out of fear that i would be abusive about her and her family! I've never been abusive about anyone in my life - in fact sometimes i wish i wasn't such a doormat! I was devastated by the letters and sought help from a solicitor who thought his family was being completley unreasonable by refusing to talk to me. She advised me to just write my own letter stating that I wasn't stopping contact which I did. I felt like i was just being bullied so they could get there own way without actually communicating with me.

Anyway that was over a year ago and the tues arrangement has always carried on with his mum picking dd up and my ex seeing her for an hour within this time. My ex still has dd every other weekend and he always without fail will take her to his mums house at some point during that time. Understandbly my relationship with his mum is now hard as I feel let down and angry by how i was treated but i still get on well with my ex.

My problem is that my dd has now started school and she's finding the tues arrangement hard as she's tired and is not enjoying going round his mums for tea every tues - in fact she's outright refused to go on a couple of occasions. She say's she just wants to have tea at home. Which is fine for me but his mum is still insistent she sees her every tues - i try and encourage her as she will see her dad but i think she's just fed up with it now.

What do i do? Do i say she can stay at home and risk the wrath of his mum or give in to my dd wishes?

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks.

OP posts:
cobbledtogether · 12/10/2010 19:57

Tricky. As you get on well with your ex I think your best bet is to let him know what dd has been saying and offer an alternative - for eg, she only goes over ever other Tues, but sees her more in the school hols for example.

I think if you go in saying she doesn't want to go may get a knee-jerk reaction, but offering an alternative and explaining that its solely due to dd and not you may just work.

porkarooney · 12/10/2010 20:22

Thank you for replying :)

I actually have already told my ex my concerns as on the occasions when my dd refused to go it was when he came to pick her up. When i asked her why she didn't want to go with daddy she said it was because she didn't want to go to Grandma's house. She usually gets picked up at 345 by his mum and dropped home at 6 by his mum and will have tea at his mums. My ex wouldn't be able to pick up till 4ish because of work and then leaves at 5 as he has to be somewhere else. So he just sees her at his mums for an hour.

I said that dd wasn't happy about the arrangement and that she just wanted to spend time with him and not grandma but he said "well thats my mums time with her so it shouldn't change" I'm worried that my dd and exs relationship will suffer from this as she obviously just wants some one on one with her dad without Grandma being there. I wanted to suggest that perhaps my ex could come and pick her up at 4 and spend some time on his own with dd before dropping her back off at 5 but I don't know if i'm being unreasonable Confused

OP posts:
childrenofthecornsilk · 12/10/2010 20:27

can't grandma pick up from school so she goes home to you a bit earlier?

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porkarooney · 12/10/2010 20:38

I've been picking her up from school as she's still settling in but even if she did i know she wouldn't give dd tea any earlier and she's said she wants the 'arrangement' to stay the same ie till 6.

OP posts:
childrenofthecornsilk · 12/10/2010 20:48

very tricky foryou
she will adjust to it though even though it's early days now

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