Now that the menu has reappeared (thanks wikiteckie's) I can tell you about the weekend.

 The children are with their maternal grandparents for 2 weeks as we are both working.  As I may not see them until the end of the month I thought it would be good to see them both this weekend. 

So a long trip (200 miles each way) and time with in-laws, 2 sisters in law and their husbands.  Felt like it might be stepping into the lions cage but they were great, no blame on me, encouragement to sort things out as soon as possible and reading between the lines I think a great deal of frustration with

Well, day 2 of my new blog!!

 Today I head down to the beach after work for a couple of hours 'quality time' with my kids.  First people I see are his family.

 I'm trying to maintain a good relationship with them and them with me ..... however, my ex is now accusing me of turning the kids against him (see earlier blog for details).  I found myself in the position of defending my actions to his family.  I did quite well really and told them that until they had walked in my shoes and were dealing with the stuff that I had to deal with on a daily basis.....they really had no idea and were not

Last night, my son had trouble sleeping whilst he was at my house; he came to see me in the lounge and said that he was upset.

My first reaction was he was trying to stay up late with Dad, which if I am honest I don't mind as I get to spend more time with him, but I know that he needs to be in bed. I could tell that he had something he wanted to talk about.

He sat down and started to talk about a friend of his from school, who has said that his mummy and daddy are having problems, and he thinks that they are going to separate.  I know the couple quite well, I play football with the dad, and he