<prompt> Human: I divorced my ex-wife a little over 3 years ago after 16 years of marriage. Of the many reasons I chose to divorce, money was one of the biggest factors. She had shopping and hoarding issues, ran up large sums of debt without disclosing large purchases to me, and she allowed our 13 year old son to use her credit card on Xbox Live where he ran up monthly charges of sometimes over 200 over a span of a year before I found out. I estimate we were around 8000 in debt that I knew about. Her credit cards were in her name only and I wasnt responsible for that debt after the divorce. My guess is that she was at least 16,000 when we split. I should mention that she was around 30,000 in debt when I met her at 21 with nothing to show for it... not even a car. Red-flag, I know. I was a dumb kid. I talked her into filing bankruptcy and over the years we managed to get her credit score back up.She didnt get a lawyer in the divorce. We have joint custody of the kids with my son splitting his time between our houses and our older daughter chose to live with me full time. She didnt want to sell our house, so we agreed that she could buy me out if she could get a new house loan and pay me half of the equity we had in the house, which was about 40,000 based on realtor, bank inspection and tax value estimates. Even though she owed me 20,000, I settled for 14,000 to help her out. She talked her mother into co-signing the loan using her house as equity to secure the amount needed.Her house payment is around 850 and she only owes 100,000 and the property tax value of the house is 145,000. The inside is now in terrible shape, so I would imagine the real value is around 120,000.She quickly found a guy to move in with her which helped her make payments. She worked as a night shift R.A. for an assisted living facility and her sleeping habits have always been terrible, and as of a result she got into numerous driving accidents. So much so that her license was suspended and she had to get high-risk insurance which is over 500 a month.I had to give up half of my 401k to her which was 30,000. I told her about the tax ramifications if she cashed it out, but she still chose to do so finding out that she was one the hook for a large amount when she filed her taxes.She had a home equity line of credit that she maxed out at 16,000. Her mom had set up an account that they shared where she could deposit 500 per month that was supposed to be applied to the loan by automatic withdrawal. The problem was that as soon as my ex saw the money deposited, she would take it out for bills. Her mom ended up paying the HELOC off in full, and closing it.She blew threw her new boyfriends money which Im guessing was around 20,000 in savings. I actually feel bad for the guy because hes a bit young and naïve, but has been working crazy overtime to support her and has been really good to my kid. Last week he finally decided he had enough and left in the middle of the night, closing his bank account and moving 7 hours away to his dads house.Shes now in pretty dire financial trouble. Even with all the money from her mom and boyfriend, shes managed to go 20,000 in credit card debt. She now thinks she can get another HELOC to pay it off and keep the house. Ive pleaded with her to get an apartment so that her mom and I can fix the house up and sell it while the market is still really strong. Ive gone as far as to offer to pay the deposit and half of the first months rent. Im very close with her family and really dont want to see her mom get screwed. I also worry that her debts will become my childrens, so Im trying to be proactive even though I just want to walk away and leave her with her own problems. Even though shes been eligible to get her license back for the last six months, she hasnt and shes been driving on a suspended license this entire time and continues to do so. I believe if she gets caught its an automatic 5 year suspension. She has a history of substance abuse. Shes been fired from jobs for stealing medication and failing drug tests. Every closet in the house is filled with her clothes, shoes, purses and she has an addiction to buying jewelry. Her latest addiction has been buying Pokemon cards. Yep, thats right. Shes spend countless hours on ebay getting into Pokemon because she thought my daughter would like it and her boyfriend was into it.I know this is a lot to read, but Im really wondering how I can go about protecting my kids and mother in law. With her history would we have a chance at getting a conservatorship over her? I welcome any advice.  <response>: As long as nothing ends up in your kids names, they cant be on the hook for her debts. 