When I first met my husband, his ex wife was calling him every day and usually texting him multiple times a day. Sometimes, it was about the children, but it was usually just to talk about her life, use him as her verbal punching bag, or complain about how hard she had it. Even when she was talking to him about the children, she never shared anything useful. He had asked her not to call him at work, but for some reason, he always answered and always replied to her texts. I basically told him that I didn't think that level of communication was appropriate, that it seemed like she hadn't moved on, and that I wasn't interested in being in a relationship with him and his ex. This definitely lit a fire under him to further limit communication with her. I also helped him to see that her behavior was abusive (she had emotionally and physically abused him throughout their marriage) and that he didn't have to put up with being called a loser, a deadbeat dad, etc. Shortly after he started to limit communication, she decided she had "issues" with him not following the parenting plan (still not quite sure what those issues were), demanded a mediation session, told him upfront she agreed with all of his requested changes to the plan, then went to the mediation session and pretended as if she was having a nervous breakdown. As she was pretending to be ill, he added a clause to their parenting plan that said they will only talk on the phone in the case of an emergency impacted their children. For some reason, she signed on to adding that. She later claimed that she thought his not talking to her on the phone was child neglect, but he could always point to their legal agreement. He then got phones for both of his children and added them to his plan, so he could contact them directly. Now, she'll periodically send him a flurry of angry, overly-dramatic texts, but he doesn't give her an immediate response. Our lives are so much better, he is so much calmer, and it makes it easier for him to have conflict-free time with his kids.
