My ex cheated on me for four years. We have three kids together who were my entire world while he was out living a double life. I divorced him, obviously. He didn’t waste any time—he went and married the woman he was cheating with, let’s call her Jane.
It wasn’t a quiet split. They tried fighting for full custody, painting me as “unstable” just because I was grieving the death of my marriage. Thankfully, the judge saw right through it. They lost. I got primary custody, and he got visitation every other weekend. Cool, fine. Life goes on, right? I focused on rebuilding my life and making sure my kids were happy and loved.
Well, last week he calls me out of nowhere. I usually let it go to voicemail unless it’s an emergency about the kids, but he called twice in a row, so I picked up. I swear I could feel my blood pressure spike the moment I heard his voice. He sounded nervous, which isn’t like him.
He starts with small talk, then drops the bomb: “Can you help Jane bond with the kids? She’s infertile.”
I laughed. I actually laughed out loud and hung up. I shouldn’t have, but I did. It felt ridiculous even hearing it.
Ten minutes later, my phone blew up with texts.
“You’re heartless.” “She’s suffering. She can’t have children of her own and she loves ours. She just wants to be a mother to them. You need to tell them to be nicer to her, to call her Mom, to make her feel included.”
I sat there staring at the screen, shaking with rage. It wasn’t just that he cheated. It was the audacity to think that my children were there to fix her trauma.
I texted back: “My children are not emotional support animals for your wife. They have a mother. If she wants to bond with them, she needs to earn their trust and respect naturally, not force it because she’s sad. Do not bring this up to me again.”
Since then, the kids have told me that Jane has been acting strange during visitation—buying them excessive gifts, crying when they don’t want to hug her, and trying to get them to call her “Mama Jane.” My oldest (12) finally told her, “I already have a mom, and she doesn’t try to buy me.”
He called me again yesterday, threatening to take me back to court for “parental alienation.” I told him to go ahead. No judge on earth is going to mandate that I force my children to roleplay a happy family with the woman who broke ours apart.
