Take a breath and try to imagine yourself in a thankless marriage.
Now try to imagine having a little one watching and witnessing – the fights, the anger, the unhappiness or depression.
When marriage counseling fails (it did for me) and you have exhausted all of your options, emotionally and physically to make it work – when do you know if you should leave?
There were a few moments, split seconds of time when I knew I had to give up – that my ex-husband and I were impossibly different – and that he was impossibly uncommitted to truly being the best father and husband he could be. These moments were spread out over two years. And then one of them broke the camel’s back: he told me, didn’t even ask, told me – that he would not be working but staying at home until our (my) savings ran out. Then, he said, he would find a new job.
And that was it. I left – packed up our apartment – moved in with my mom (took little 4-month-old Benjamin of course) and got on with my life.
It wasn’t easy.
It isn’t easy.
But being in that marriage, with someone who gave me no respect, no affection, no empathy or even friendship was harder than being a single mother.
I received an e-mail this week that moved me to write this post. [click to continue…]
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