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XH's anger towards me is being taken out on my boys, what to do?

sterlingsilver's picture

This is sort of off topic but it definitely has me worried.

I have two boys 15 and 17 yrs old. They are great boys who are now doing a lot better now that I have full custody of them. Four years ago my ex kicked me out of my own house, changed the locks and put a restraining order on me against himself, my house and my oldest who is a disabled daughter. He fought for an won full custody of all 3 children b/c I was at the time homeless/jobless after being a sahm for 15 yrs. I went to college and then got a job and am now working two jobs and obviously doing a lot better, married to dh, have 3 skids and 1 sgkid.

After 3 years of my boys living with their dad they finally begged me to fight for custody of them. My ex got guardianship of my daughter a bit earlier then 18, he tricked me and took it to court before she even turned 17, gave a wrong address for me and so I did not get the summons to go to court and he won full guardianship by default. But being a guardian doesn't make him a guardian or parent of any substance. I have full access to my daughter now whenever I want b/c she is almost 20 and lives in her own home.

Ok so the worry for me is this. My boys have been complaining to me lately how xh is drinking heavily and always talking bad about me to them. They try telling him that his anger towards me is his issue and they don't want to hear about it, but when they say that to him he gets even worse. We are pretty darn sure that he has undiagnosed bipolar like his dad had. I am not worried about my 17 yr old b/c he is off to college (but his dad picked him up last weekend for a sporting event but ended up talking about me to the point where bs17 doesn't want to talk to him again for another year. He's sick of his dad's selfishness and anger and lack of getting over losing me etc.) and able to take care of himself, however my 15 yr old is still supposed to go over to xh's house eow. He has high functioning Asperger's and is beginning to do ok when he's over there but he always comes home hungry and depressed. He says his dad never talks to him and rarely cooks decent food.

The basis to my custody fight was on those issues, lack of good food in the house resulting in bs15 having lost 30% of his body weight in one year, very poor school grades with both boys having all F's and bs17 in Juvenile school due to lack of attendance. The boys' lives were a mess and I was given full custody without an eye bat from the judge.

However this sort of care is ongoing for my 15 yr old when he's over there still to this day. In our state a child has to be 18 to chose chose not to see a bio parent if it's in the co. I want my kids to have relationships with their dad but their dad seems to push them away and neglect them to the point where he'll be lucky if he ever sees them again after they're 18. His anger towards me and not letting go of the past (he blames ME for the split and divorce and says to the boys I left him to take care of everything. REALLY?) is what concerns me most, to the point where it might harm my bs15 in some way. What can I do?

Comments

sterlingsilver's picture

yes, I paid child support and would even take the boys out for meals when I could afford it. I think for bs15 it was a combo of depression and aspergers that caused him to not eat well. He is now doing well and I am training him to cook, do dishes etc. My son's prob too is that he can go all day and forget to eat. It's just how his aspergers has affected him, he zones out and forgets to interact and live normally. It's a big job to parent a child like that and was just too big of a job for xh, unfortunately he was not willing to tap out when he was over his head and thus my children suffered. I finally had the money to step in and take them away from him.

herewegoagain's picture

OK, good...yes, I agree this not eating can be an AS thing...but it seems you originally blamed your EX in your post...

sterlingsilver's picture

I was visiting my friend one day and he had the locks changed and had had the restraining order in place a couple days pervious without me knowing. He even went so far as to make up lies about how I wanted to poison my oldest disabled child with her own medications etc, tried to get me put in jail. I got a really good criminal defense attorney and he was able to prove the lies and even made my dh out to be mentally unstable but b/c he had a job and I didn't the GAL kept the kids with him and b/c he got to keep the kids the judge ruled him to keep the house til the divorce finalized (it took two yrs) and then xh had to sell and gave me half the profits, which I in turn took to use for an attorney to fight for custody. That same GAL was rehired by me 2.5 yrs later and she was horrified that it was truly in fact him who was the crazy one and I was truly a victim in this situation along with the children. She immediately went before the judge and stated that if the boys were not immediately removed from the home bs15 was suicidal and needed to be with me. My xh is truly an evil bastard who ruined us all (temporarily), though my bs17 is still trying to recover even after 4 yrs of counseling. Now xh is beginning to really PASing bs15.

My story is odd here but not so odd on another website I am on of noncustodial moms who's xh's did similar things to them by using the judicial system to abuse and then accuse their wives and then end up getting everything and even not have to pay alimony, instead the poor woman having to pay cs. I had to pay cs and it was back dated to our separation so I owed over $1500 and it was accuing interest until I could pay it. Now xh is way behind in support but he's not being charged interest.

Anyways, it's sad and I am glad I am out of it but sad my boys cannot get out until they're 18. My attorney told me that if a child wants to emancipate they have to do it from both parents, otherwise my boys would have wanted to do that. We tried for supervised visitation but the judge didn't think it was needed.

herewegoagain's picture

Poor woman? I couldn't agree more. My freaking sister was also kicked out of her house. But sorry, I have a feeling from what I have heard and seen afterwards that she was cheating and yet played the poor woman card. By the way, she was never made to pay CS...gotta love our "justice system".

sterlingsilver's picture

When I first was on my own my mom kept telling me I had to put the oxygen mask to myself first before trying to save my kids. It took me 3 years to finally save them. Anyways, now I just want to know what I can do for my 15 yr old. I know there is nearly nothing to do legally without spending another 10k. Sucks

Sunflower1's picture

Sterling- you don't have to explain yourself. Keep your chin up, you've come a long way.