I drove 3 hours to see my family specifically my niece and nephews whom I'm close with. I had gifts to give them and wanted to watch them open them and spend a little time with them. Well my brother was supposed to pick them up and they were staying the night with him. His kid's mom was at her moms. She has 4 kid's but only 3 are my brother's.

Well she told my brother that he couldn't get the kids unless she took her and her youngest son home. She doesn't have a car and relies on people to take her places. She had one a long time ago but couldn't make payments and it got repossessed. He told her that how she got to her mom's is how she should go back because it's on the opposite side of town. My brother lives closer to her mom's house so it would be pointless to drive her all of the way to her house and back to this side of town.

My brother has been trying to be cordial with this women for years and is finally going through the courts so this will hopefully stop eventually. She even told my brother that her youngest son's father listens to her and that's why he gets to see his son so my brother should follow her rules to see his kids. Isn't that such bullshit.

I'm just sad because those are my babies. I helped raise the older two since birth and I actually took care of them more than the parents but I moved away to college but I always maintained a relationship with them. The kids have also expressed that they would rather be with us than with her. She literally doesn't spend time with them and her boyfriends are more important. The kids even lost their tablets that they were given because they weren't attending virtual classes and my brother got everything ready for them to get enrolled again but he's waiting on her to send a copy of her ID and some paperwork but she said she doesn't have time to help them with their schoolwork.

So basically they can't spend Christmas with my brother because she can't get a ride home from him. The stupidest shit I ever heard