@jca I’ll give you the Cole’s Notes version:
In a nutshell what she tells people is that I trapped her son. When she nearly had me away from him I manipulated him back. That I am a terrible mother and that every thing that is wrong in her life is because I married her son. She has told each of my kids this too.
(there is much MUCH more to this)
In reality her son chased me and not the other way around. After so many interactions like these ones:
After my first was born she would want to take a family picture. I would start to line up with everyone else and she would pull me out and say “Just my family”. Crap like that all.the.time.
When my youngest was 4 months old I invited her over for lunch. After exchanging pleasantries I said that I wanted the two of us to get along better for my son’s sake. I can’t remember exactly what she said in response but I responded by telling her that if we didn’t get along in the long term it would probably push us away. She lost it when I said that. Then she said, “If you try to take him (my son) away from I will sue you for custody”.
Most recently she covertly took pictures of our laundry (just before we needed to DO laundry) so she could have evidence that we are filthy people. We accidentally found out when she mistakenly pulled up those pictures instead of what she meant to pull up.
My kids have each been in therapy because of her and what she says about them and me.
After we moved to different province and limited our contact with her things got easier in the family. It’s sad. I want my kids to have a healthy relationship with her but she’s just not capable of it.