Does My Ex Owe Something to Our Grown Children?

[tfcrew]

Saw this article on NY Times site...

 Kwame Anthony Appiah 
 THE ETHICIST JUNE 7, 2017
               
   

    After 25 years of marriage and three children, my husband and I divorced. He was a former seminarian and a pro-life Catholic when we married. He insisted on no birth control. When we divorced, he was a lawyer and vice president of a Fortune 500 company. I did not receive any spousal support, but he promised he would always be there for the children. I worked hard and was always able to take care of myself. I felt guilty about the divorce and never asked for more.
Shortly after our divorce, my ex-husband remarried and never again had anything to do with our children. He told the children that they owed him “filial piety,” but apparently he felt he owed them nothing. That was 30 years ago. Over time the children, now adults, have reached out to their father with the help of therapists, but he refuses to have anything to do with them. I have sent letters to him as well but have received no response. He and I have a daughter-in-law and two teenage grandchildren he has never met.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/magazine/does-my-ex-owe-something-to-our-grown-children.html?mabReward=ACTM_TS4&recp=0&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Politics&region=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article

[2tallbill]

Saw this article on NY Times site...

Hearing only one side of the story makes it an impossible question to answer.
Also the timeline is very confusing.

After 25 years of marriage they divorced. Then she say's "that was 30 years ago"
Thirty years since the divorce? 55 years since getting married? Since they got married?
5 years after they got divorced?

How old were the kids when they got divorced?

I could make a blanket statement about how you are always your kids parents, but
what if they were 50 year old drug addicts, felons, etc? Would you feel compelled to
give them money or have them around your second family?

It's an impossible question without a lot more information from both sides.