My WH and I have been in a custody battle since right after I filed for divorce in mid-April. At the end of July, we finally reached an agreement in mediation. Since then WH has not called or seen DD2. WTH? He fought me tooth and nail over every tiny detail of our custody agreement, and then when it is signed he just walks away? It would seem that WH was more interested in sticking it to me and paying less child support than actually spending time with our daughter. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> His absence may also be in part due to the fact that our court mediator asked we add a clause that stated we weren't to bring SO's around DD2 unless the other parent agreed (i.e. his nasty OW). Has anyone else had this happen? What should I do if anything? How will I explain this to my daughter? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

At 2, she won't understand. Be the parent she needs. Encourage X to see the child.
In many cases, if she is in Daycare, the parents alternate pickup from daycare on their days/nights. Is he just not picking her up?
Document this behavior, but be the parent your child needs.

I went through something similar in my first divorce way back in 1989. EX fought for full custody and ended up losing (i.e. I won full custody). Now, there were abuse issues and he messed up in court so the judge awarded him supervised visitation with DS, who was only 1 year old at the time. He showed up for one of these visitations and that's it. Then he followed me across the country and we tried to set up another visitation for him in a different province. He failed to show at that one as well. I just kept track of this in case he decided to take me back to court but he never did. As things turned out, he never saw our son again.

DS is now 19 years old, in college and very well adjusted especially considering he's in the throws of his second broken family. He knows about his "real" dad and we are in contact with his grandparents on his side. My current separation was hard on him - WH has been "Dad" to him since as long as he can remember. WH and his family have maintained a relationship with him, though WH threatens that he'll cut him off any time he wants something from me. DS doesn't know this and I'll never tell him. He's a good kid and really didn't suffer at all from not knowing his true father. As for me, I was far better off not having to deal with EX all these years.

That is the hidden lining of him just walking away: You can bring up your daughter however you see fit.

On the other hand, she may have abandonment issues. I think how you handle this will influence whether or not she feels abandonned. If you don't get too stressed out, chances are she won't either since she's so young.

It's only been since the end of July. Most likely, your ex will come around and start seeing his daughter again.

My SS is having abandonment issues from my stbxw not allowing me to see him.

I'm sorry to hear that, Pariah. It must be heart-wrenching when you have little control to make it better.