The original post: /r/amitheasshole by /u/GrouchyAd129 on 2024-04-27 09:27:47.

I (36f) have been married to my husband Nick (42m) for almost 6 years now. My husband has two teenagers with his ex-wife Lyndsey (40f) and they have been divorced for 11 years. My stepdaughter is Melody (15f) and my stepson is Jace (13m). My husband and I also have a 14 month old son together.

Nick and Lyndsey have shared custody of my stepkids. And typically they can get along okay…ish. It’s not what anyone would call a friendly co-parenting relationship and both can be stubborn with the other at times. I’d hate to see them forced to sit in a room all day to mediate but it’s not as bad as some divorced people I have seen in my life. My relationship with Lyndsey is not good anymore. Around a year into my marriage she grew annoyed that she and Nick would be harder to reach than me and I was getting more calls from the kids school when they were sick or whatever. Jace has some health issues so it’s a common enough thing for him. It made Lyndsey extremely jealous and on her custody time I would be calling her to try and get the kid who was sick or to make plans with her. But her job made it difficult for her to be reached hence me being the only one available to pick them up. Once we got to the point where she was jealous there was no going back. I had hoped during Covid and the kids not being in school that it would maybe take care of some of the jealousy, but it didn’t. And once she turned against me so did the kids. We had a close relationship before and now they don’t want that with me. They complain if Nick leaves them with me for a couple of hours or when I pick them up from school. They’re not as open and talkative with me. I spoke to them, Nick spoke to them, he spoke to Lyndsey and we even did some family therapy together but the relationship is not what it was and it’s not what it was becoming before the issues.

I bring all this up because recently my husband learned that during his parenting time he will be out of town for four days in May and those four days fall on his parenting time with my stepkids. He wants them to stay with me for the four days so he can see them for a few hours on the day he comes back before they go to their moms. The kids do not want to stay at the house with me during that time. They want to be with their mom. They were pissed he wanted them to stay with me. It started a fight between the three of them and the kids told Lyndsey and she wants the kids to be with her, but the parenting agreement doesn’t have a clause about this.

I told Nick he should listen to the kids and he told me it won’t help anything if they refuse to stay in the house with me while he’s not there. I told him he better listen to the kids because I’ll be the one facing the repercussions of him not doing so. He told me I should want the kids with me and I told him not when I’ll be dealing with their anger and disrespect while he’s gone.

AITA?