My ex-husband has been my archenemy for going on eight years. If I say the sky is blue, he touts that it’s green. I say up; he says down. I say go; he says stop. No matter what I say, he’s bound to say the opposite, and the contention between us is most certainly palpable.

We share custody of our 6-year-old daughter, and I’m currently in a new relationship with a wonderful man. My boyfriend doesn’t have any children, but we plan to have one or two of our own in the very near future. I love the relationship he shares with my daughter and have come to find that he’s going to be a great father one day soon. 

Unfortunately, the custody battle with my ex has nearly become physical on my part at certain points. The back and forth of it all keeps me up at night and has my pockets tapped out, that was until our daughter fell ill. She became sick overnight, it seems, and it required us to come together to find the best treatment for our little angel. It was as if all of the hurt, pain and anger just went away, and we joined forces to do what was best for our baby girl.

I noticed that my boyfriend was showing signs of jealousy of me and my ex’s newfound truce. He would make comments here and there about me and my new ‘little friend,’ or ‘how’s your new homie?’ — things like that to let me know he was feeling some type of way. My ex-husband is not in a relationship at the moment but has met my boyfriend, and the introduction went just fine. The only ask that my ex-husband had was that my boyfriend avoids disciplining our daughter. My boyfriend agreed to that, and we have since moved on.

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In a positive turn of events, our daughter will receive medical treatment; it requires traveling out of town, and my boyfriend is not able to go because of work. My ex-husband suggested that we ride together and offered to drive me and our daughter to South Carolina for the procedure. It makes the most sense, and we will be staying in separate hotels, but my boyfriend has an issue with me riding down with my ex-husband. He reminds me that a wolf will always be a wolf and that I shouldn’t trust the changes I see in my ex-husband because they’re temporary, and it’s all going to blow up in my face.

Should I drive to South Carolina separately or put my foot down and force my boyfriend to deal with his childish feelings?

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