Consider yourself lucky, OP. My stepdaughter didn't even text her dad on Father's Day until 6:30 pm, and that a lame excuse that she was sick all day. She's 20 and posted about 50 posts to Twitter and a bunch to FB but was too sick to send her dad a text, much less a card or a present or a visit, though she lives just a few miles away. Funny enough, she had time to visit to come over for money a few days earlier. (Yes, I'm bitter.) DH was in a foul mood all day, pretending not to be hurt, not wanting to leave the house in case she might stop by.

I'd take a kind gift orchestrated by the ex any day over the kind of hurt we had over here.

I think that's amazingly nice of his ex. To still want his kids to have a great relationship with their father. You, and your family, is INCREDIBLY lucky. Remember that, as you hear the stories of exes trying to keep bio dad away at every chance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Got it loud and clear! I snapped out of it. Thanks for the insight.

Good for you OP. But it would be good for you to take a good look into your own insecurities that caused the initial reaction. It will save you from much worse overreaction in the future that may cause real damage.

Good for you, OP. As PPs pointed out, it's great that the Ex wants to honor that relationship. My DH's relationship with his ex is not and has never been amicable. When we met, my stepkids were in middle school. I don't know what happened in the years between his divorce and when we met, but I know that I facilitated gifts between the kids and DH, and between the kids and their mother. It was the right thing to do, but boy do I often wish for all of our sakes that the co-parenting relationship had been better.

Kids are now in college, DH and I are happily married so all is good, but blended families really are hard.

Had you planned a different gift for him from them? If not, be grateful the ex did since otherwise he would have had nothing. If your thought is that it is her responsibility to provide gifts since they are her kids, then again you have no grounds to complain that she came up with something thoughtful. The undertone of your message seems to imply you are slightly jealous that he was happy with something that originated with her. Work on letting that go so it doesn't eat away at your security.

I wish my stepson had been that thoughtful on Father's Day. He gave his dad a six-pack of beer and wrote happy father's day on the brown paper bag - his mother (the ex DW) took him to a liquor store to pick it out. Talk about tacky. Did I say anything? No. Not my circus, not my monkeys.