My current situation is that my STBX is fighting me hard on 50/50 custody. We have been seeing a divorce therapist/mediator to work on a parenting plan through this transition. He says he doesn't want to go through the legal system and agrees to the plan we make with the Divorce therapist, then goes behind my back and plots and schemes with his lawyer.
He writes all these fictional crap emails trying to create a story line where I am witholding the children and trys to bait me into saying something stupid. He says I am denying the children time with their father, that they should not have to tolerate this injustice, that they want more time with him...yada yada.
They have a long weekend scheduled this week...Fri am to Sun pm...longest stretch they will have done. He is thrilled, they are freaked.
So last night, the kids come home from seeing him and the little one says " Tell Daddy I don't want to go to the pad anymore. I like it here. I want to stay home more, see my friends, jump on my trampoline." My older one says "I can't believe you told Daddy we would spend Wednesday night and then Friday night and THE WHOLE WEEKEND over there. I am so mad at you. When am I going to see my friends??"
I said, "Your Daddy wants to spend time with you, don't you want to spent time with him? You always say you have a good time?"
Little one says "Well, I know he wants us to go there and he wants to see us, but I want you to text him and tell him I don't like it."
Me "Honey, you can talk to him about your feelings."
Her "No, he wants to see us and I don't want to hurt his feelings. You tell him. I see him more than before he got his apartment (she means when he lived here) so why do I have to see him so much now."
Me "I am not going to tell him that sweetie, it will be fun, and you can talk to him about it if you are having a hard time, it will be okay..."
So, I am seeing it unfold now like people told me it would. Secretly hoping it goes poorly. I don't want the kids to have bad time, but I want him to see that long stretches of time is not in their best interest nor is it sustainable. He doesn't get it, still thinks as long as they get to see him, everything will fine and normal. My mom told me two months ago that the kids wouldn't like going there, and he would realize that all this parenting time is not going to be easy as he thinks and they aren't going to like it.
Have you all experienced that with your kids??