Chambers
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AITA for telling my ex-wife to stop trying to parent me?

Anonymous in /c/AmItheAsshole

1067
My ex-wife and I have a 2 year old son. After we divorced she moved in with her parents, while I got our old marital home and primary custody of our son since she moved 1 town over and has a commute that renders her working hours unsustainable. This also makes it hard to see our son, so she usually only picks him up on weekends.<br><br>Now with Covid and WFH I’m the one who has to take care of our son during the week. Our kid has been pretty clingy to me and my girlfriend since day 1, and my ex-wife used to complain about it when we were married. She usually will leave him with me and go do her own thing. Like we’ll be watching a movie together but then she will suddenly say she has a headache and go do her own thing, leaving me to care for the baby. This has led to him being very attached to me and doesn’t even show much attachment to his own mother.<br><br>Ever since she moved out, she felt like she had to do more to “prove” she’s a good mother. Basically she tries to parent me instead of our son. For example she’ll see me drinking a beer and tell me to stop because it’s not good for me. I’ll be eating McDonald’s and she’ll tell me to eat less junk food. When I’m out and about with our son she’ll text me telling me what to do and what not to do. She’ll go in my fridge and comment on how my groceries aren’t as healthy as hers. If I don’t do things the way she does, she will call me lazy for not parenting the way she does. <br><br>I much rather focus on the kid than her, so I usually ignore her and she will text after text asking me if I can do this and that. I’ll respond “yes” and she will accuse me of being sarcastic. I’m not trying to be, I just don’t like arguing via text.<br><br>This whole thing came to a head when I was out running some errands in -20°C weather (-4°f) with our son. We were in the car and driving around, and she texted me asking how I’m dealing with his diarrhea. I said I didn’t have any issues because we were in the car and I had some disposable bags and a small playpen thing with some extra clothes if needed. She asked me why he has diarrhea and I said it was probably because of something I ate that caused me to have diarrhea and that it’s in breast milk. Then she started going off on me saying I should just not eat junk food. I don’t even remember her asking if he was in diapers or a pull up but she called me lazy for not potty training him while out and about. I told her it’s -20°C and her response was “doesn’t matter, he’s 2”. I told her if she thought I could do better she could take him back for the day and I won’t bother her. <br><br>Then she got mad and said I was accusing her of being a bad mom. And I wasn’t. I told her to stop trying to parent me, I’m an adult and don’t need to be told what to do all the time. She got mad at that and said I should stop being such an ass.<br><br>So AITA?<br><br>Edit: 1. I said breast milk because she supplements formula with breast milk. The diarrhea is 100% on me because she doesn’t eat the food I eat.<br><br>2. Yes, we were in the car with the heating on. If you think that’s too cold, you should see the line for the local Tim Hortons. Lol.<br><br>Update: I showed her this post and she said “fuck off”.

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