Divorcing a Narcissist: Painting Bird Houses and Cancelling Visits

It was difficult to hold a straight face a few weeks ago when my daughter told me that they did crafts while at their dad's house. Crafts with their dad? Turns out, it was the day that the custody evaluator was visiting. Seth had them painting bird houses to show the evaluator what a great father he was. This one scores right up there with baking me an apple pie which left me scrambling to find a crime lab for testing!This weekend (Easter weekend) was supposed to be Seth's visitation weekend. I had emailed him yesterday about pick up time as we had an Easter egg hunt prior to his visit. I received an email back and Seth cancelled his visit:Tina- Most regrettably, I exceeded my available funds driving down the last two weekends in a row. The costs average $200-300 depending on where we go to get food. I simply don't have enough money until the 5th of April. SethStep back into reality with me for a second...two weeks ago he took the girls to Taco Bell and since they don't like Taco Bell, the total cost of their meal was probably less than $4. He only has them from 11am to 5pm so he doesn't feed them dinner. Last weekend, I packed the girls lunch and enough snacks to last them the entire day as they've been claiming that dad has no food in the house, no eating utensils and no plates. Its ironic that he has enough money to drink heavily for the past two weekends in a row which was glaringly obvious by his hangovers at pick-up time.Seth's staged apartment is located in the downstairs area of his older brother's home. There is a private entrance and once inside, you can enter the main portion of the house through several doors.  Seth has a very tumultuous relationship with his father and older brother and the girls have recently stated that they are now bored at dad's house because they can no longer go into the main portion of the house- they have been locked out.  I am assuming that Seth is banned from the main house due to a fall out with the family. Either that or the agreement for use of the main house was only promised until the parenting evaluation was complete.I have updated the evaluator on all of the above and look forward to receiving the completed report very soon. It sounds to me like the lure of Spring Break festivities outweighed Seth's desire to see his daughters at Easter. I am thankful that we now have two weeks of peace.###"Like" One Mom's Battle on Facebook or "follow" on Twitter Click the link to purchase Tina's new book, "Divorcing a Narcissist- One Mom's Battle."  You will find insight, red flag reflections, tips and strategies on how to survive (and thrive!) while divorcing of co-parenting with a narcissist. Tired of panicking at the site of a new email from the narcissist in your inbox? Learn how to decode the emails and see them for what they are. You will learn to forgive yourself and you will begin to heal.[wp_ad_camp_1]