Barged in again this morning.
Storms into the house and I come downstairs with "what are you doing here?"
In front of the kids "I can come to my house that I pay for whenever I want."
Guess my $75000 year salary counts for nothing...
Him: "I needed to get some stuff and I want to talk about the schedule for the next 2 weeks (that I had already sent him for approval/ammendments)"
Me: "you can text it to me please." And I head upstairs away from him.
Him: shouting "nope- I don't have time for that. We're going to talk about it now."
Following me up the stairs, he passes our 5 year old who says "Daddy, are you going to live at Uncles's house forever?"
Ok- rewind. 3 weeks ago when he moved out, he didn't want to tell the kids this was permanent. We decided to tell them Mom and Dad were taking a time out to not fight so much. They asked lots of questions about "how long" and we said honestly we didn't know. We said it might end up that Mom and Dad might live in different houses and the boys would each have their own room and stuff at each house. (Trying to play up the positives).
So- now going on 4th week and the boys have started to express "I hope Dad comes home soon, etc..."
So, my ds (5) asks him this while he is in his rage stomping around the house "Daddy- are you going to live at Uncles forever?"
He flippantly while storming by him spits "yes!..."
Fucccccck! My heart broke for my poor kiddo.
Then he says "I don't know..." And walks away from him to follow me upstairs. I was totally stunned. We talked briefly about the schedule with me being calm just to get him the hell out of the house.
As he was leaving he said "I do not understand why you've all of a sudden turned into such a bitch." Alluding to my 180 behaviour. Kids were upstairs at that point.
Then he left and I talked to both boys about their feelings what he had said about living away forever.
How do you express concern about how your WH is treating your kids without breeching 180?
I sent him this text. I know- it's tooooo wordy and it's already gone. So just help me get better at this. The first part is calmly refuting his stupid claim I'm keeping his kids from him when he wanted to show up and see them 15 mins before we were due to go out the door to do something.
The point of the 180 is to just be calm, positive, right? I suck at this. I'm trying to stand up for my kids and myself in a strong yet neutral way...
------------------------------------------------
WH
I have never and would never keep your kids from you because it would only hurt THEM. But our lives go on and for the most part you can see them whenever you want- but we had plans. I have happily ammended the schedule to accommodate you seeing them more- so I'm not keeping them from you. Period.
I would appreciate it if you would be more sensitive to what you say to the kids about our current situation. The boys actually talk to me quite a bit about their concerns because I make an effort to sit alone with each of them once a day or so and ask how they are feeling about the Mom/dad situation. Sometimes it's fine and nothing is said. Ds1 and Ds2 BOTH said last night "I hope Dad doesn't live at Uncle's forever..." I asked Ds1 if he was missing you or wanted to see you more. "It's not that, I just miss living with both my parents."
I'm certainly NOT telling you this to pressure you or get any kind of response about what will happen to us in the future- in fact I didn't plan on telling you at all.
But when you storm in here and your sweet child asks you that question and you spit out "yes" first and then "I don't know" without stopping for one second to TALK to him about his question...you are thinking only of yourself and not of them. I know this is hard and you have a lot of anger about...everything. Do not neglect your kids emotions in all this. I do get them at night and in the morning and I'm lucky to. Ds2 has had an increase in nightmares. And stomach-aches. Ds1 seems pretty far away at times. They will get through this- but they need absolute sensitivity from both parents.
When you storm in here to "get stuff" and go over the schedule with me in the mood you were in- they can sense your tension and anger. And then the tension it brings out in me. This was part of the point of this separation - to not subject them to this anymore. You are welcome to come to your home whenever you want. Please give me a courteous heads up before you barge in and do not come in so angry again. Civil. Please.
And as for my change of tone...it's not that I stopped caring, Wh. But you've made it very clear that I have to move forward. So that's all I'm trying to do. The pain you are causing me necessitates me detaching from you and making myself ready to move on to a better future with or without you.