I could really use some help. My husband's ex-wife is creating a ton of drama. Visitation has always been very flexible on the sides of all parties. We had been dating for over 4 years and just married recently. Since the marriage, life has been miserable in regards to working with her on visitation, to the point of her taking the kids away from us early on our wedding day because it wasn't convenient to her, despite it being our weekend. She has chosen an alternative lifestyle, so I know that it's not a matter of her wanting him, it's just about her wanting to control everything that everybody does.

Here's the net of the issue. Kids at 16 and 15 years old. We live about 25 miles away from the kids. Jobs and friends obviously live near Mom's home. Mom is very controlling and kids are always grounded and oddly enough the older boy always has his car taken away on our weekends so that he can't drive to see us and we are then turned into a car service. Our weekends consist of picking the kids up after football on Friday which is around 11:00pm, Saturday driving them to work at 9:00am, picking them up at 5:00, taking them home with us and or to a friends house, if they do go to a friends house we then have to take pick them up that evening and bring them home, then on Sunday we have to do it all over again, however, she will often have them walk home from their jobs since they work past our scheduled visitation. Ex has mandated that the kids work, if they don't they lose all priviledges. Because of this weekend work, it leaves us no quality time with the kids, who by the way... aren't really kids. If by chance the bous are off from work on our weekend but it grounded at Mom's house, she will add additional punishment to them if they are allowed any form of priviledges at our home during our visitation. Kids have asked Mom to chill out and to lessen the rules, but Mom refuses to hear them and instead punishes them additionally for complaining.

Despite the above, kids love Mom but they do not "like" her as quoted by the kids. Kids do not want to move in with us because it's not convenient to the school they attend and/or their friends and hangouts. Husband and I totally get it... they are growing up and standard visitation just doesn't really work for them anymore.

Here's my question. With the kids having jobs and definite social lives, does Texas law mandate that we maintain the scheduled weekend visitation? If the answer is yes, then what is the legal process in regards to modifying the visitation schedule. We really feel that alot of the drama would be reduced if his ex wouldn't have weekend visitation as a punishment tool, (finding reasons to ground them or take away car access prior to visitation, etc.)

It's not that we don't want to spend time with the kids, we do. We just want to do it w/o a schedule and when it's convenient to them and it's truly quality time vs car service.

Any and all help would be appreciated. (Could I have made this any more confusing? I'm even having trouble understanding what I typed)