Not my best, but this is what it came to after refusing to let her control my life and my relationship with my boys. Proper formatting can be seen here

Real TL;DR: Ex-wife panicked when I started bucking against her absolute rule. Shuts. Down. Everything.

... and calls me names. Fun TL;DR at the bottom

For the past week or so since the last incident, I've been trying to pick my battles and apparently it's paid off. I explained how I felt about the whole Facebook matter and said that there wasn't really anything left to talk about.

When she tried to alter our holiday break arrangement two days after it started (it was a weekend) I stood my ground and didn't back down. I even went so far as to tell her that since we couldn't agree we would have to go back to the arrangement as written in our parenting time agreement, which means that I would have gotten them on Christmas Eve instead of this Saturday (long story short; we decided that splitting down the middle and making it so one parent gets Christmas and Christmas Eve per year made it easier on everyone). I prepared to call the police to file a report (which it turns out they won't do; they won't get involved in a civil matter) when she wasn't there but at the last minute she had a change of heart and decided to go ahead as we had originally agreed.

The straw that finally broke the camel's back (and it didn't take much: two times where I stood my ground) came when I told her that I was a little insulted (this is relevant later on down below) that she wanted to know my entire itinerary for my half of the Christmas break so she could write up a schedule. Full disclosure: I've been bad at keeping up with the occasional homework or reading assignment that is sent my way. When I say "occasional" I mean "once every three months or so" and I completely accept responsibility for those times that I dropped the ball. Since I've been working with my girlfriend's son though, I've been getting back into the routine of doing homework and where the parent fits into it all.

In other words I got it handled and I told my ex-wife as much.

Here are some choice excerpts from the email I was sent (and my commentary in bold):

"I really dont care if you feel insulted," - I don't expect her to care, really, but it's nice to have it in writing

"your not involed in the boys school so you would not understand how hard or complex the homework that [oldest] has is." Except that I'm working with a kid that's doing the exact same thing right now.

"You constantly make promises that you are going to step up and time and time again you dont so if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it will probably still be a duck." She's referring to the flag football games that I wasn't able to attend because I got a job that has me working overnight; she thinks I quit my other job when I was, in all reality, fired.

"When you can actually show me that you do what you say then I wont have much else to say will I." This one kinda hit home; she wants things done on her terms and freaks out when I don't follow her instructions exactly. According to her I'm just a paycheck dispensing robot that should only do what she says.

"I dont know why you keep acting like your trying to not be a jerk off but its not working. Your a manipulative jerk who still only thinks of nothing but himself. "

'I drag your kids though the ringer with broken promises, and you dont bother to spend the time you do get with them. " Remember that job? The one that works me overnight? What happened when I asked to switch my "weekends" to my actual days off? You said no and keep complaining about it.

"You wouldn't know what open communication is if it hit you in the head, you think that I need to pass every little detail along and that way you really dont have to do any work." Except that I don't want details of your life, just my boys'.

"Then when I expect the same I get some BS about how you and your GF have hurt feelings because I wanted to know who the hell had pics of MY CHILDREN on her page." Because we took a vacation together. Remember when I told you that?

"I am done responding to these stupid emails that are an endless sea of I think this way and I feel this way, when you can show that you are really willing to act like a grown up and have a normal relationship as co-parents I am all for it otherwise you can talk to me when you pick the boys up." What she means here is "until you're ready to do what I want you to do and nothing else."

I was shaking when I read that email the first time and now I'm shaking again, but only because I'm laughing so hard. I pushed back at what I saw as blatant efforts to control my time with my sons and she panicked. Her response was to close off completely even though she had told me on many occasions that she was MUCH better at communicating openly that I am. She openly mocks me for telling her how I feel about a situation and refuses to believe that I'm not trying to do anything but piss her off.

I admit that I'm still a little bit riled and I'm missing quite a few details about our conversations but what I realize is that she doesn't want a co-parent. She wants someone she can control, manipulate and otherwise keep under her thumb.

Sucks that she's not going to find that in me anymore.

TL:DR: The number 4 is the only number with the same number of letters as the meaning of its name. Amazing, considering there must be trillions of numbers!