If you don’t want to read a lot the title sums it up enough, but here are the details. Their dad is always sending messages to me about how I “never” let him do things with the kids, how I’m “keeping the kids from” him, how I freak out about every little sneeze, etc. He has 50/50 custody and won’t pick the kids up from things or take them to appointments. I have not one time ever kept the kids from him, ever. In reality, I had to seek legal help because he kept them from me, and then my attorney wanted to push for him only getting supervised visitation. I advocated for their dad, a decision I regret now but nonetheless I have done completely the opposite of keeping the kids from him or not letting him do things with them. What he is referring to is that I don’t call him every single time I need help with getting the kids picked up from school, I didn’t let them go to one birthday party while they were with me, and I didn’t let my son go with him to a concert. The kids didn’t want to go to the birthday party because they don’t like how his family treats them, so we had decided they should attend for a short time rather than the whole 3 hours dad asked for, but then because we had a basketball tournament and sick kids we weren’t able to make it. There was no keeping them from it. In reversed roles, my kids have missed 5 birthday parties with cousins on my side because it was his time and he wouldn’t allow them to go and I didn’t throw any kind of fit about it. My son didn’t want to go to the concert with his dad, he said “I think he’s only doing this because I went to a concert with you.” All I said to dad was “You need to schedule things like this on your time with them.” Feels like a perfectly valid thing to say. Now I know some people feel strongly about calling the other parent over grandparents or a babysitter, but understand where I am coming from on this. This is a man who abused me for years and will go out of his way to hurt me even now regardless of how it affects the kids. While we still shared a house but were separated he had the a/c set to 90 controlled on his phone in August, took the router out of the house, and took the couch cushions out of the house so I would move out. The kids couldn’t do their homework (second week of school), couldn’t sit on the couch, and we had to leave the house because of the heat. He he’s refused to cover medical costs the courts appointed him to pay and then withheld medications the kids need. Most times I contact him about simple things about the kids, I get paragraphs of accusations, blaming, shaming, name calling. If I bring the kids to his house because he failed to pick them up, I get texts about how long it took me. He goes out of his way to be a problem. The kids ask me not to contact him about things because of the drama he causes. The doctors ask me to make appointments on my time because when they are with him he misses appointments. He is constantly high conflict. I particularly hate receiving these paragraphs of negative texts when the kids are with me because it can be stressful enough to make it hard to focus on time with the kids and what they are needing. So due to that, I have stopped contacting him for things like when I need help picking the kids up. He is often bringing the kids to me sick. He won’t provide me with their insurance card, his correct phone number, or his correct email address. He is supposed to cover their medical costs but often refuses it saying I take them to the doctor over every little sneeze or allergies, and then they have positive flu tests, step tests, Covid tests, infections. I stayed home from work 3 days this week because our daughter can’t get over strep for 3 weeks now that he has told me twice was just allergies, even though she was sent home from school with a fever. I am fighting with the school about absences because I don’t have a doctors note when our other daughter had the flu because sister had already been tested and diagnosed and I don’t have the money to keep paying for this and their dad refuses to pay or help pay or the them to the doctor.
So I need to know, is this something he could successfully use against me in court? As long as it’s not, I’m fine with just ignoring it. But if it is, what do I do to combat a made up narrative? Location: Texas
Comments
Why are you worried about a fake narrative he might use in court instead of just compiling evidence and taking him to court? It doesn’t sound like he’s being much help to anyone in your family acting like that.