It's just that all I want is peace and strong family connections.

My parents are old. I just wish I could enjoy them.

My dad just... concocts... these things that suddenly need attention or that I have to fix about myself or the kids.

I can be completely relaxed and, "We need to talk..."

Last summer, six months after my wife and I split, it was, "We need to talk. Your children need a mother.
There's been enough of this moping around. You should have already been looking for someone ."

If I say something like, "That's.... insane. Middle aged women with no histories or responsibilities who will move into my home and accept me and my children don't exist. And I'm still grieving. We're still unpacking the degree of abuse to the kids."

So.... That makes me difficult and impossible to speak to. I'm always angry. Hair trigger, ready to go off.

He's continued with that stuff, calling my competency as a parent into question.

Boom. Now we're done. I'm fighting for my kids in court, and you aren't safe to be around.

My father recently told me how terribly angry his older brother would get at him. I said, "Yeah, you've always said that. But he never came here. Those times always happened when you went to his house, and the fights were around his business, his kids, and his marriage."

Again.... Proof that I'm just difficult.

I wish I could suppress my reactions to him and this insane crap.