From the legal department:
There was a somewhat heated discussion with The Ex last night.
The issue is this:
As part of the whole divorce thing, there is a consent order. This basically sets out the terms of the divorce and what each party will do. Our's goes thus:
* The Ex and The Boyfriend buy me out of the house
* First-born stays with me for a minimum of 2 day nights a week over the course of a year
* I pay The Ex £400 a month for upkeep of First-born
It's supposed to kick off within 28 days of the Divorce Absolute (which eagle-eyed readers may have noted occurred quite recently.)
Thing is, The Ex and The Boyfriend are nowhere near fulfilling their side of the deal - lets face it, there isn't a great deal of pressure (he earns more than me - my £400 will probably go towards holidays) and I've made it clear that I'm not going to force them to sell the marital home. This is the main reason why I lost the apartment.
So my lawyer advised me not to start my side of the order.
The Ex pretty much exploded. That I can handle. What I had a problem with was that her reaction was "Ok, then you can't see First-born"
So last night I wrote a cheque and took First-born home. The Ex looked smug, I felt like I'd caved in - again. The little girl in question had no idea what had gone on and was more concerned that I fix the string on her purple sparkly cowboy hat.
A friend said:
"You did the right thing in the long game - good man. You'll get your payback soon enough - whilst she disappears up her own bitter and twisted backside"
Yeah. Right. Doesn't feel like it at the moment.