They need to at least take the phone and say hello and if they do not want to talk they need to tell him that and why. This has potential to blow back on you and you did nothing but how do you prove nothing?

If this doesn't work maybe he can call at a specific time? Right before bed or after dinner? Maybe you can give the kids an idea of some things to talk about? All of a sudden DDstb5 is into telling her entire day as a story (it's odd but cute) and perhaps a couple talking points (what did they have for lunch, brought for show and tell etc) would help? Is the ex asking them uncomfortable things or saying things that bother them? Why do they not want to talk to him?

It is a two way street and if you were NCP and in the exe's position what would you want? (with his feelings of wanting to talk daily, perhaps he is afraid if he is not present somehow daily they will forget him? Not exactly rational but you know when it is your kids sometimes rational goes out the window.

I didn't come into the picture until my SD was 10, but we were long distance NCPs for 7 years. DH called once a week, and sometimes couldn't talk to her due to her activities.

SD never felt less loved because she didn't talk to her dad every day. She didn't get to see him but for three times a year either, and that didn't hinder their relationship.

Now DH is CP, and they're doing just fine. Her relationship with BM is horrid, but that's purely BM's doing.

I don't like nightly phone calls. Dh calls SD almost every night, BM answers sometimes & sometimes doesn't. But she calls SD every single day when she is here for the summer. She use to call more than once a day until I blocked her from calling my phone, because if SD & I were out somewhere or having dinner OR if I was on the phone with someone else (DH works late so it's just me & SD until around 7) she would call over and over and over like 20 times. Because of this, now she just calls at bedtime.

It's still disruptive. Especially when we only have her for a weekend!

BM2 was into the daily phone call and it was always all over the board and it was disruptive and annoying but it was a sticking point with her. She used the fact that we had activities and I did not always take her calls as parental alienation when she sued for full custody. You cannot take away the calls and the best thing to do is find out the problem and try to fix it. Your ex can and probably will claim the kids won't talk to him because of you. Do you really want to deal with more conflict?

I agree with tog. If I divorced and didn't have custody of my children, I wouldn't call every day because otherwise you're reminding them of your absence every single day, and making it harder for them to adapt to a lifestyle where you are not daily presence in their lives. However, you have this in your custody agreement, so you could end up with serious repercussions if you try to drop it just because the children have had an off week when they have gone off the chats. Some suggestions:
1.Talk gently to each of the children at bedtime about it being rude to refuse to speak to their Dad and if they are busy they should just take a break for a moment to say hello to him and ask if it's ok to carry on with the activity. Personally I would do this if my kids refused to say hello to their nanny or granddad or aunt if they called.
2. Try another medium for the chats - they're only young, maybe the voice over a phone is not engaging them and they would be better using Skype or Facetime - if nothing else the novelty of seeing their Dad on screen might re-engage them with the daily chats.
3. Negotiate with DH to change the daily phone calls to Skype on Mon, Wed and Fri - he may accept fewer contacts if he feel he is getting 'more' from face to face chats.

Hmmm, if this new absolute 'no' is happening just this week perhaps kiddos got in trouble last visit or are mad at Dad over something. With the kids actually running away from the phone is what makes me wonder. You might flat out ask them 'hey what's up with not wanting to talk to Dad all of a sudden'. Not that you can or should 'fix' anything that's up between that household, you'd at least know why the kids are hiding out. If you learn why no desire to talk it'll give you some inkling as to if it's time to rethink the phone call agreement as it stands with Dad so ex and you can discuss a new agreement without you being blamed at fault. The kids may simply be out growing the need. While you can drag your kid to the phone, you can't really make them chat on and on, KWIM?

As kids get older they seem to have less need to have daily calls. I think that's normal and expected, but it's something some parents have a hard time adjusting to. You might suggest to ex that he call every other night or every 3 days to see if a bit if absence makes things better. maybe kids would be more excited to hear from him and anxious to talk. Maybe not.

I personally think every night for kids eight and over is excessive unless it's the child wanting to make the call. My GS gets annoyed when he's busy and ex-DIL calls (or he's having a goodtime and doesn't see a need to be bothered). It's not he doesn't want to talk to ex-DIL, it's more just not right now. When it's GS's idea to call his mom, I've seen the kid talk her ear off and happily so.

My DH calls his kids who are 6&8 every night. Most of the time Bm does not pick up, and half the time when she does she feels she must berate and scold and yell for 20 minutes before she will allow the kids to speak to their father. The kids are perceptive, if they see BM angry at DH they never want to stay on the line for long, but when she just hands the, the phone without yelling and screaming they will chat with DH for a few minutes. You need to let go of the idea that this is about you. He has the right to say goodnight to the kids, and you need to have the kids at least say goodnight. You don't need to interact more than to put the kids on the phone. At six, the kids will be more interestd in their cartoon or toys than talking to dad, but they need to at least say hello. Imagine that it was their grandma or aunt who called and they refused to say hi, you would say, "that's rude, you need to at least say hello" because little kids don't know better. So yes, you need to explain to them that they have to speak to their bd, they do not need to have a long drawn out convo with him, and once a day is not too much. Imagine if you did not have custody, how often you would want to just say hi to your kids. With my DH it breaks his heart not to see them more, and the three and a half minutes of "how was school today? Tell me about yout favorite cartoon" every night (when he gets through at least) are worth more than any amount of money.

SS14 NEVER EVER calls DH when he's with BM. But she reads him the riot act and threatens to abandon him (yes, really) if he doesn't call and text her regularly when he's with us. Go figure.

I think it's kind of ridiculous to call EVERY night but, whatever. Do you have caller ID? When you see it's him, hand one of your kids the phone and make them answer it.