My husband has his children every other week. I have my children all the time except every other week end. We love our alone weekends together. We drive his children to school on our week and it is 3 hours of driving a day and $400 a month. We don't mind sacrificing for his children, though it is a sacrifice. His ex wife was a friend of mine before our marriage and we have got along well with each other. Has anyone moved within 3/4 of a mile from their husbands ex wife? I'm nervous, but it would solve a lot of issues.
Thank you all for the advice. I really helped me be more confident in the decision to move closer. The children are all excited to move and all to the same school. Our financing fell through, but we haven't given up on the idea to move closer and will as soon as it is possible.
We called his ex wife before we even considered moving closer and she if highly in favor of it.
Living closer to her will help in a lot of ways - getting them to school, they will be near friends, etc. If you don't want to see her, you don't have to, but if you want to its easier too. I don't think it's weird at all!
Lots of folks live that close to their exes in small towns.......
You are looking at the picture all wrong. Your husband should have ALWAYS been 3/4 of a mile from his CHILDREN. It's NOT about his ex wife, it's about the kids. Spending $400 a month is not sacrificing for his children. Sucking it up and and living as close as possible to them from the time their lives became chaos because of divorce would have been a sacrifice on his part. Living far from them was a choice no matter who moved first, him or the ex, and not seeing them on a daily basis and having to spend extra money when he does see them is the consequence of that choice. Those poor kids have had to sacrifice their stability and comfort to come visit their dad, you and your children who get to have their dad full time. So, I say YES make the move closer to his kids and be very pleasant about it, and to his ex wife all the time.
You're still going to be living in separate homes, so it's not really a big deal. You can still lock her out. I wouldn't make it so she's overly welcome or go over there all the time, but I think living close is a great idea.
As long as you know and trust in your husband, no issues here.
I live very close to my oldest son's father, and it hasn't really made a difference. My husband doesn't seem to mind, and I think is relieved that the trip doesn't suck gas anymore.
When I was a kid, my father and stepmother had a house 2 blocks from my mom. My mom still lives in the house she did when I was born and my stepmother happened to have a house in the same neighborhood. We stayed with dad full time and with my mom every other weekend.
I don't think there was any big deal about living so close. I don't think it made them see each other more often than if we lived further, and everyone minded their own business. It was nice for me when I had a pet iguana at my mom's house and had to feed it every day, and if we wanted to go to her house before she got off work, it was an easy walk.
You are not crazy! I wish my husband's ex would move a quarter of a mile away from us. It would make his children so much more happy. As it is now, my husband's ex keeps moving frequently, but it's always over 30 minutes away. It's like there's this invisible wall that keeps her out of the county and away from her children (her own choice). We have the kids most of the time, but she has them Wednesday nights and drives them to school every Thursday morning. Right now that's an hour drive to her house and an hour drive to the school. It would be so much better for the kids if they didn't have to spend so much time in the car and spend more quality time with their noncustodial parent.
We live within 2 miles of my step-daughters mom and her husband. We all get along well, and I think living closer has been good for ALL of us - especially my step-daughter. I think you will find life easier if you live closer. You aren't crazy at all. The only time I'd adivse against it is if she wasn't a good influence on her children and the space was better for them.
If you decide to do it, please talk to the ex wife and make sure she's OK with it, too. Give her some time to think about it. If she isn't re-married, having her ex living close might be hard for her emotionally.
