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[quote=Anonymous]I have an amazing stepdaughter who is 13 years old. She primarily lives with her bio mom. A little backstory - her bio mom and my DH were together for about one year before having her. They were 19 and 20 when they had her and had a pretty bad breakup while bio mom was pregnant. My stepdaughter has never seen her parents together. Back then, my now DH took bio mom to court because she wasn't allowing him to see their daughter, played games, etc. She made a lot of claims in court and had a great lawyer, so she ended up with primary physical custody but joint legal. My DH has had an every other weekend schedule since the beginning. After about 7 years, they still couldn't get along and parent effectively together. Bio mom would change DD's school without telling DH, would regularly cancel weekend visits, wouldn't let DD travel with him, and wouldn't let her come for summer visits . DH ended up trying to go back to court to request more time with DD, and his lawyer pointed out all of the things bio mom had done to keep DD away from him. The judge agreed that bio mom was wrong for playing games, but because of DD's ADHD diagnosis, the judge said it would be best for DD to stay in one home, so the schedule didn't change. DH was very upset that he couldn't get more time with DD, but, her bio mom did stop canceling visits and would include him in decision making, so there was some progress.

Fast forward to now, for the past 2 years, bio mom and DH have been getting along better than ever, to the point they started doing joint birthday events, doing group family outings, etc. They really turned a corner. DH was so excited that bio mom recently asked him to keep DD for about one week because bio mom had to travel. He was excited to have the chance to have more than just weekend/fun time.

Two days before the extra visit was supposed to take place, bio mom canceled, saying she was no longer traveling, so they could stick to the regular weekend schedule. DH was sad but didn't say anything to bio mom about it.

I feel so sad for DH...I just know how much he was looking forward to being able to take her to school, help with homework, and have a chance to engrain her into our regular weekday lives with our other children.

Don't really know the point of this post besides wanting a place to vent, but blended families and co-parenting just sucks sometimes. They've made so much progress over the years, and this event just feels like a revert back to old times, which were hard. I just know how much DH wants to be involved, and he just isn't given the opportunity. It's to the point where money doesn't even matter...he would still pay his required $1,800/month and have increased time with his daughter. [/quote]

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