Her Ex-Husband Kept Complaining About The Difficulties Of Coparenting Their Disabled Teen, So She Snapped And Said He Should’ve Thought About That Before Having Another Baby With His New Wife
I’ve heard it’s very difficult for people to co-parent when they’re split up but have a child with special needs.
One woman recently snapped at her ex-husband, who won’t stop complaining about having to take care of a baby with his new wife on top of sharing custody of their disabled teenager.
She and her ex-husband have a 13-year-old daughter named Nicole.
“Nicole has several medical conditions that require a lot of attention,” she explained.
“She will need some sort of in-home assistance for the rest of her life. While we have an aide to help a couple of days a week, it is still a challenge. The outcome of Nicole’s condition became clear when she was two. At that point, my ex and I agreed we wouldn’t have more kids because it wouldn’t be fair to anyone.”
She and her ex-husband felt they wouldn’t be able to give another child the attention they needed due to everything they had to do for Nicole. However, after they divorced when Nicole was five, he married his second wife, Callie, and they decided to split custody of Nicole 50/50. Last year, he and Callie had a baby.
A few years ago, Callie expressed that she wanted to be “hands off” when it came to Nicole’s care, which she found surprising, as Nicole lives with her and her ex 50% of the time.
Recently, her ex-husband has been complaining about how hard it is to care for a newborn on top of Nicole’s care.
“I sympathized but really didn’t know what else to say,” she said.
contrastwerkstatt – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“Recently, the venting got worse. He said Callie yelled at him for taking Nicole to her physical therapy appointment instead of helping her with the baby. He brought up potentially having Nicole stay with me more.”
She tried reminding her ex-husband that Nicole was his daughter and that he couldn’t abandon his responsibilities as her father. Then, her ex asked her what he was supposed to do about the baby. She told him he should’ve considered that “before he pro-created.”
She then told her ex that she couldn’t understand why he thought having another baby would be a good idea, especially because they decided against having another child themselves years ago.
“He got quiet and said Callie wanted a baby,” she remembered.
“I said that isn’t enough of a reason, and maybe he should’ve thought harder before bringing more life into this world. The conversation ended with me saying I’d call my lawyer, and we could arrange for him to have less custody as I’d rather my daughter be properly cared for than be viewed as a burden.”
Later, she got a call from Callie, who said she upset her ex and accused her of saying their new baby shouldn’t exist, which is far from the truth. Now, she’s wondering if she was in the wrong for what she said.
Should she apologize to her ex?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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