I am finally separating from my ex-husband, who I have fully accepted will not change, will not quit emotionally abusing me, and will not become more involved with his kids. It was very hard for me to move past my own guilt and self-blame and realize I'm not responsible for fixing him, but I did it.
MIL, however, routinely begs me to stay and has contacted:
* My parents - asking them to basically talk some sense into me. My parents thankfully found this bizarre.
* My kids' school and medical clinics - in order to make sure her son is being included in meetings and I'm not pushing him out of that. I've had to instruct them to ignore her requests and actually had to remind them she's not authorized to decide anything related to their education or medical treatment. Absolutely no one has kept him from any of these things and he chooses to ignore the invites.
* Therapists - She has told me her therapist believes her son has bipolar disorder and that since I also struggle with mental health, it's not fair to hold that against him. He has no apparent signs of bipolar disorder, holds down a serious job where he's very polite and respectful, and most people have never seen the side of him he shows behind closed doors. And btw I've never abused someone because of my mental health struggles, which she has never asked nor cared about.
And that's only the people I know about.
She also cries when she's not getting her way, so there's no point in trying to talk sense to her. She has major attention seeking behavior and gets visibly upset when other people are getting praise/attention. I gave my kids a gift in front of her one time, and she jumped in front of them and said "Hey I have something cool!" Wtf. I am 99% sure she has some type of cluster B personality, but she's too busy getting her son fake diagnosed with bipolar to worry about herself.
His dad is also just like him, who she happily divorced without making excuses for. Their son didn't stand a chance.