Imagine being a divorced parent who hasn’t seen your kids in awhile and when you finally see your kids again, it’s clear the other parent has been neglecting them. We’re talking about huge developmental delays.

Would you be upset and step up your parenting game to compensate for your ex’s neglect, or would you document your ex’s neglect to get back at them in court?

Today’s story is about a guy who had to deal with this situation. Let’s see how he handled it.

Ex-wife tells me to take handling the kids more seriously…… so I did.

So I am a happily divorced dad of 2 beautiful kids. A 5 yr old girl and almost 4 yr old son.

My ex an I met in my home state of IL (she was a navy brat so her family is from TX).

Things were fairly fast-tracked in their relationship…

We fell in love very quickly, got married after a year, and was expecting my daughter after 3 mo. My son followed almost 4-6 mo after my daughter was born.

A month after he was born I found out she was cheating on me with at least 5 guys (later found out it was around 8).

OBVIOUSLY, I filed for divorce.

I got the lawyer, changed my banking accounts, and presented her with papers. The first copy was rejected for a reason I cant quite remember.

This is where it gets bad!

Upon revision, I had my lawyer ALSO change the custody from me having the kids every other weekend to EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND.

Much to his surprise she signed it.

We shared the kids accordingly(she was SUPER mad but there was nothing she could do about it), and when she/I could no longer afford to live in The state, she moved back to TX.

UH OH!

Fast forward 2 years with out seeing the kids (couldn’t afford to see them except on 1 xmas), I got out of the navy, moved back home and I got the kids for 3 months.

I was appalled by their development delays.

BOTH kids were rated in the bottom 5% of kids their age. My daughter didn’t have a clue about potty training at 3, barely speaking, and had no awareness of adult authority.

My son was not even close to walking, nonverbal, wouldn’t eat most meats, and was afraid of grass.

He did all he could for the kids!

When I returned them my daughter would listen to adults, was potty trained, and speaking in almost complete sentences.

My son was walking, saying some words/hand signals, and eating a variety of different foods.

I worked off to get them there(also spent a lot on 2 times a week therapy for both of the kiddos… money well spent).

He decided to move to Texas.

Anyways I stayed in IL For about 1.5-2yrs gathering up enough money to move to TX.

I had a little amount saved, but I started dating a girl who I came to find out was also wanting to move to TX.

So we pooled our money together and moved down.

Things were going well for a bit…

We got down to TX and lived out of hotels for around a month, found jobs, found a place and moved in.

I work in a sales position in a large bulk type store, and my GF works at a sandwich place.

At this time my ex and I ARE NOT going by the divorce decree custody days, because of convenience.

Well a person ended up quitting the job and I had to take their hours, so my GF got permission to bring my kids to her work (the GM loves them).

Well they were being toddlers, and she texted a mutual friend of my ex and me asking if she could watch the kids for a few hours.

That’s INSANE!

That got sent to my ex, my ex and new hubby got mad, and they came to my work and chewed me out saying that I “need to take the kids well being more seriously”.

Rodger that losers.

Now I realize I messed up that day. I was not mad at what they said. I was mad at the fact they did that in front of my trainee, a customer, and coworkers.

Malicious compliance/revenge

During my “set up phase” I was not paying my full child support, which was kind of them, but that ended because I was now taking things more seriously.

He knew he had to do something about it!

The next morning I talked to my boss, told him what happened and informed him that I could not work at the times specified on my divorce decree because now that I am taking things seriously, I will now have the kids EVERY weekend.

I then transferred my ex the remainder of child support, informed her that she was right and I needed to take things more seriously, so I will be by after work to pick the kids up after work for my court appointed custody.

She was confused but agreed.

She was not dealing with it nicely!

Then I called her on Friday evening to see if she has everything prepared for the weekend stay(medications for my son).

She FLIPPED out saying they have plans all day Saturday, and church Sunday morning. She screamed “why are you making these demands all of a sudden?”

“Well I’m just taking the kids and our agreements more seriously.”

I ended up letting them have the kids Saturday and picked them up Sunday morning.

He went all in with his revenge on this one!

I then informed my ex and hubby that we would need at least a weeks notice for any change in plans on weekends incase we had things planned(generally if they wanted to do something special with kids if we didn’t have plans, even at last minute).

Since I was taking things more seriously, my gf and I kept VERY meticulous records of any injury, diaper rash, rash on my daughter from not wiping correctly, and physical appearance upon pickup.

We would treat said rashes, note any changes in our little black book, then take a photo of the pages with a time stamp.

He was keeping check of everything they did!

When they returned we would then note any worsening of any rash, injury, or non treatment. We also signed the kids up for more therapy since they are still very much behind.

This went on for a few months until, Surprise! My ex had enough and brought me to court to force the changes she wanted.

I presented the judge with EVERYTHING. The drs notes I had from day one, the doctors notes from my ex with conflicting information(these notes were things she would tell the state funded therapist for my son).

As well as all the expenses for the therapies I was giving my kids.

She was shocked!

Then I showed her our notes, the printed time stamped photos, and the many times any rashes would be present or worse when we got the kids.

My ex broke down into tears since she brought her entire family and several friends for support.

The increase in child support she wanted was shot down, and instead was almost HALVED since I was making less than I was prior, the expenses I had for the kids, and my overall time with the kiddos.

The cheery on top!

The change in custody she so desperately wanted?

Well, the judge ordered it to stay the same with the change of alternating Sundays (slightly annoying). Walking out she asked me through tears “how could you do this to me”

To which I replied “I was taking things with the kids seriously”

YIKES! That’s so much drama!

Why couldn’t she just take care of her own children?

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user wishes this guy had asked for full custody of the kids.

This child therapist shares her experience with such cases!

This user thinks it is sad that this guy has not gotten full custody of the kids.

This user thinks the ex sounds like an awful human being.

This user has an important question for this guy!

Someone was extra clever here!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.