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"We have another mediation session tomorrow, and I have a rock in my stomach. Ugh. I can see why people sign stuff away and give up on things they were pursuing just to get this stuff over with, I really do. Peter fired off an email to me yesterday revisiting my request to increase the amount of child support and he brought up the home warranty service he just purchased for the house at my request - which I really appreciate - and then he brought up the fact that he had to increase his life insurance per our agreement and that&amp;#039;s costing him over $100 extra per month. I started to type something out about how I&amp;#039;m also having to increase my life insurance per the agreement, and I also will have added expense because of that, and I brought up that while he&amp;#039;s paying for the subscription on the home warranty, we do co-own the house and this is protecting his interests, too. Plus, I&amp;#039;m the one paying the service call fee whenever I do have to call for a repair from the warranty company, so I&amp;#039;m forking over money, too. I refuted him point-for-point and then I realized how utterly silly this is. I didn&amp;#039;t even bother responding. We&amp;#039;re meeting tomorrow and we can talk more in front of the mediator. One thing I am really, really good at is keeping my cool, particularly when there&amp;#039;s a third party around to witness my behavior. I&amp;#039;m far more likely to go off on him in an email than to show bad manners in front of someone else. I&amp;#039;m better off saving our conversation for the meeting.  I just hate that it&amp;#039;s degenerating into this petty stuff. And as so many of you have pointed out, neither of us should be taking a bow for doing what we should be doing to ensure our children&amp;#039;s well-being, either financially or through basic comforts like a house and school clothes and money for field trips and birthday parties. All of that should be expected and not considered &amp;quot;above and beyond&amp;quot; in any way. Can this just be over with already? I am ready to be done with it, but not so desperate to do so that I&amp;#039;m going to be stupid about it. The process is wearing me down, though. It really is. How did you manage to keep yourself focused through negotiations? Did you find yourself agreeing to stuff just to be done with it? [Follow Ellie on Twitter and Facebook] "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a48136/trying-not-to-let-it-degenerate/>