A shame you and your ex-husband couldn't work together. But see?? There are men out there who are willing to take on all kinds of "stuff."

Yes, my life used to be horrifically chaotic. Years of phone calls and appointments with police and social workers and middle-of-the-night hospital runs for suicide attempts (and then fake ones, just for attention) and so much more. It had an adverse impact on my other children, plus I had massively toxic interfering parents who made things worse, so I cut them out of my life for a few years. Twice.

Sympathy plays at school telling vicious lies about a home life that was SO not happening - all for attention. Months in hospital for behaviour modification - everyone jumping through hoops except the kid who was just loving the attention and playing all the docs and parents off against each other.

Court appearances, gone for months on end at 12, 13, 14, 15...drugs, violence - blah blah blah. Can't believe I lived through so much when I allow myself to dip into those awful memories.

And watching these adults - my grown children - treating others just as horribly as they treated me, playing terrible games of manipulation, delighting in stirring up trouble.

And I think I told you about the bio son of one of them, and that I adopted him and he's now in jail on a first degree murder charge after the same kinds of misery since he was a boy.

There is so, so much more...

I am so done. I send all of them love when I think of them. But I will never tolerate that sort of nonsense in my life again.

As for people who "mess with me" - when I see anything that looks like that sort of dysfunctional, abusive behaviour, control issues, temper problems, poor boundaries, lack of self-respect - or disrespect toward me or others - I'm out. That's it.