Hi everyone. It has been a few months since I wrote my last blog here. I felt like I was always defending myself and I needed a break.

It was summer vacation and SS was supposed to be with us. But after a few weeks he was asking to go back to his mother’s home because his friends were there. And he was especially bored because my own kids went to their father’s state for the summer. SS made friends here too but they were away on trips also. DH was hesitant but SS was driving us crazy so they agreed to a 7 day swap like before. BM wanted the full CS because of the change but DH didn’t bother fighting with her about it.

DH took SS camping, hiking and several other local trips all of summer. And SS was more than happy about that. He was not ignoring me so much either. But the moment my kids returned he became nasty again. He was being so combative with DS that I made DH tell SS that he was to ignore DS just like he ignores me. I am not going to let DS be bullied in his own home.

The therapy sessions have been quite useless. DH and SS went 12 times and SS refuses to engage or compromise. It just feels like a waste of money.

We have been trying to work on SS respecting me with no success. He doesn’t have to like me as he used to. All I am asking is for him to respect me as an adult living in the house. But he still ignores me completely. I’m not going to lie and say ‘m ok with it because it hurts my feelings to be treated like that.

From my perspective, it seems like SS can only ever be happy if my kids are out of the picture. That is not fair in my personal opinion.

As for the dog, she has grown a lot. However, the dog remains a big source of conflict with SS. Every single time he is here there are fights about playing with the dog. He had a lot of alone time with the dog while my children away. And when they came back he was being possessive and it caused a lot of fights.

School starts next week and it’s back to the old visitations schedule. SS went back to BM’s house yesterday and he tried to smuggle the dog back to his house. I am not sure how he thought he could hide a dog in a car for an hour drive. He got caught of course. DH said SS spent the whole ride back saying how unfair it was. I guess we are back at square one.

DH is still being a guilty parent like some of you said. I have slowly learned over the summer to separate him as my husband from him as father. I cannot change how he parents but at least he is a fantastic husband to me.