The BM to my step children goes out of her way to torment me and my husband and uses the kids to do so! I personally think she has Munchhausen's by proxy as she claims there are several things wrong with our youngest. She takes him to the doctor every time he sneezes and finally had him put in special ed. Needless to say there is a check involved. I am seriously concerned she is going to end up hurting him. He recently had to be taken to a children's hospital because of all the medicine he "has"to take. We have kept the kids every other weekend and for weeks at a time in the past two years and never once have we had to rush him to the hospital as she routinely does. She also talks bad about me and my husband to everyone who will listen this is horribly bad because we live in a small town and she works in the public. It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't do this in front of the kids. My husband did not have the money to contest the divorcee so it was in writing that we had to go to her house to visit. We did this for about three months until she didn't want us at her house anymore and they started getting to come stay. Now she has yanked the kids away again though this is the longest she has done so and has them telling people we were mean to them. I love my step children and I want so much for us to be a family and for me and their dad to be a part of their lives but it is really hard when this woman acts like this! I think it should be illegal for a parent to talk bad about the other parent to their children. Really it is brain washing that she does! My husband has cried because his children have asked him Daddy why when you and Mommy did you do such and such when he had never done that! She had our daughter telling people he called her a lying little bitch when he wouldn't even say the word bitch in front of her let alone call her that! She is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do! I have tried to be the better person but she has called my unborn baby a Bast@rd and a SOB! She even threatened me with physical violence and me pregnant! How do I support my husband and try to be a part of his children's lives when this woman is treating me this way? We don't have the money for a lawyer and we have only seen the kids once since Nov. She wont let us talk to them when we call she just doesn't answer or if she does she wants to talk about all of her "health" problems and I feel that if it is not about the kids then she doesn't need to be telling her problems to my husband. Its bad enough I have had to listen to her for the past two years tell me how much better her life is than mine, but now since I stood up to her and I dont speak to her anymore she is trying to do that with my husband! I am seriously thinking about going for counseling because she has made me second guess everything I have ever tried to do for the kids! we don't have a lot of money sometimes it is hard for us just to pay the bills and I feel like she is using the knowledge that we cant afford a lawyer against us by spreading lies. How do you deal with a parent who acts this way when all you are trying to do is make sure their dad is a part of their lives too!? I have been so tore up by this it caused me to be diagnosed with toxemia my fifth month of pregnancy, I am ashamed to even go to the grocery store because I am afraid people are looking at me going that's that woman who is mean to her step kids, and it has caused a lot of strain on my marriage because I don't feel like my husband stands up to her enough! He has never even defended me to her! She has even tried turning his family against me taking the kids to their houses when she wouldn't allow us to, but she did just so she could talk bad about us, mostly me, to them! On Christmas eve none the less!! I want my son to know his brother and sister and for them to be a part of his life but at the same time I can not handle the drama this woman seems to thrive on! I am at my wits end!!!