Hi. Namechanger here (supersoakers, naice ham etc, I'm a big AF fan too).
I desperately need advice this weekend and I've nobody to talk to in RL. I feel like I'm having a breakdown wrt the situation with my ex and ds. It's complicated I'm afraid.
Ex and I separated when I was pg (he didn't want it). Since then he has been a 'sporadic' parent (coming and going from the UK, didn't always 'have time' even when he was here). Over the last couple of yrs however he has had regular contact.
He is a misogynist, however, and very nasty and controlling towards me. We had a friendship, if you could call it that, until I realised how depressed and anxious he was making me. He wanted to hang out with us (me) all the time. Got angry/stopped talking to me if he thought I was seeing anyone. Paranoid about me having any new relationship (I never have, really). Withholding babysitting if he didn't like the idea of what I was doing. Anyway, I decided to sever contact with him myself, for my own mental health. Without wanting to interfere in his relationship with ds, I said it was fine to continue their contact as it was but I didn't want to see/speak to him unless it was anything to do with ds.
Ex took this really badly. For over a year now he's been threatening me with lawyers, social workers. Calling me a c*, unfit mother. Harrassment calls (30/40 times per hour at the worse times). Vulgar texts. Has shouted at me in front of ds.
Worse, he has involved ds. He encourages him to lie to me, and to teachers. Tells him out and out lies about me (eg that I'm stopping him seeing him.) Tells ds he (ex) cries all the time because I'm so horrible. Ds is very distressed by this, depressed and angry (rude and aggressive) has a referral to CAMHS.
Ex says it's my fault and I'm the one making ds unhappy because I won't be ex's friend.
I have been to WA and spent a week in a refuge to get away from the harrassment and have a break. It was great, but of course I had to come baack to the same old problems. Ex currently has no PR, name not on birth certificate. He wants to be given PR and massively increase his access, I guess he wants 50/50. I'm not happy with this, because of the way he behaves, basically like someone off Jeremy Kyle (sorry). He has no qualms about what he is doing, involving ds in very adult matters, he says I'm horrible and ds needs to know :(
In a panic last week, because I'm only sleeping 3hrs a night, anxious all the time etc, I decided to leave town. I love my town, we have a lovely home. I have no money and no friends but we have a secure rented property and I've been here for years. But I went and handed my notice in and phoned a removal company, and arranged for them to take all my stuff to my parents home. I don't want to go there, it's in a horrible town and I hate it and my family are not close (they are ok people but 'issues', though they are supportive and want us to come).
I woke up screaming in the night last night. I don't want to move. But every day, every single day I get grief from this man. He is turning my son against me, my whole experience of parenting is being slowly poisoned, ds's childhood is being poisoned.
But I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. My plan (such as it is) is to just disappear. If I stay where I am, this will never let up. Ex will press for increased rights and my son will be pulled further away from me. Of course although he is unhappy ds loves his dad. He also has extended family here.
WA encouraged me to go and have offered further refuge. I saw a solicitor, they said don't go, as ex could easily track me down, and it would look bad in future legal proceedings if I disappear/suddenly cease regular contact.
So...basically, I have until Monday. I could cancel removal, ring my landlord and say change of plan. Then I get to stay in my beautiful town, in our own space, ds continues to see his dad, but my own problems with ex will never cease, and ds will likely compy his father and end up hating me and all women too.
Or, I continue with the plan to move to my parents, to be sharing a tiny room with ds, penniless, jobless, having to find a new house in one of the most expensive parts of the country, missing my old home.
Or, I go back to WA, and ask them to hide me again, which is a short term solution, I know. (To be fair, I don't think I'm much of a worthy cause, but they have been great, and they have space for me, and would be able to keep me in reasonable distance from where I am now).
I don't know what to do, am going round in circles. Ex has been like this for 8yrs, on and off, but it's been so bad in the last yr. I've been having thoughts like, I should just go, leave them both to it, it's a lost cause. He freely admits to being a controller of women, he thinks it's funny.
Please help. Sorry for extreme length and dramatic tone.