Very, very sad and very, very lonely and nobody gives a fuck.
Not that I'm overly surprised.
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My Life As Me, Too!
Friday, 16 March 2012
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Divorce and children
I’ve started reading a book on the effects of divorce on children. And it’s a depressing read. What the author is saying is that from chatting to and doing surveys on, hundreds of people whose parents divorced when they were kids (and she deliberately chose children who since appear to have done well, ie, gone to university and got good jobs, don’t have obvious ‘issues’ and compared them with similar people whose parents did not spilt up) and found, from the point of view of the children there is no such thing as a ‘good divorce’.
Adults tend to think that a good divorce is one where both parents still love and see the child, they don’t argue or put down other parent in front of the children, they get along amenably on anything to do with the child’s welfare and education. If they do this the child will be fine and in fact divorce is a good thing because now both parents can be happy. This may (sort of) be true in the case of the parents but it is not the case for the children (though of course, during divorce, lack of conflict is better than conflict).
It also said that research has shown that, actually, mothers almost always come off worse than fathers. Not just for financial reasons – not the case for me thank goodness – but because, women are significantly less likely than men to have another long-term relationship or get married, even if they get divorced in their 30s. And another relationship gets less likely as they get older. It’s made even more less likely if the mother is the one with custody of the children. Men on the other hand are more likely to have another relationship and that likelihood gets greater as they get older. This makes sense to me in some ways but not in others. Does it basically mean that men are always coupling off with younger women who have never been married? Otherwise, where are all these women coming from?!
The reason that children are never entirely ok after a divorce is to do with having to split themselves between the two lives and homes of their parents. They say that they never fully feel part of either, are forced to grow up and form their own ideas about morality and ethics at a far younger age than children from homes where the parents are together (due to parents having different rules and ways of living so they have to decide on what they want for their own beliefs) and that they even adapt different ways of acting in each household to appease the parents, which in the end leads them to never feel sure who they really are. This bit rings true to me and confirmed what i suspected. Because i saw it in my step-son. It was so obvious that he was a completely different person in each house, even when he was only four. He had a split personality. You could feel, and see, him changing personality on the drive between her house and ours. I really worried what that was doing to him psychologically.
I haven’t read to the end yet. But basically what it is saying is that if you are the 2/3 of people divorcing, or thinking of divorcing, where there is no seriously compelling reason (abuse, violence etc) then, it is best, for the kids at least, to stay together. Because they have discovered that even kids whose parents were unhappy but stayed together, were emotionally better off than those kids whose parents didn’t.
Its gutting reading i can tell you. I feel horrible about what this is doing to E and i didn’t even get the choice!!! M wouldn’t even discuss the possibility of staying together. Because he is such a selfish c...
I think that the only thing i can do is to continue as long as i can to make it so that M does not have E over night so that his main home is here, to try and avoid the feeling of being split for as long as possible. Never to agree to the alternate weeks with each parent thing (i had decided that already after reading an account from a child who said they had fewer friends because of this cos their friends didn’t bother meeting them after school cos they never knew which house they were in) and always to be aware of the split of allegiances that E will feel. And talk about it with him as soon as he is able, so at least it is a feeling that is out in the open and maybe can be dealt with. The kids in the book weren’t able to discuss this feeling because they didn’t want to upset their parents and felt they were the only ones going through it.
Other than that i can’t think what to do!
It’s horrible. I feel horrible. Depressed, wretched, upset and a failure. I love that child so, so much and i don’t want for this to have had to happen to him!!!
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Adults tend to think that a good divorce is one where both parents still love and see the child, they don’t argue or put down other parent in front of the children, they get along amenably on anything to do with the child’s welfare and education. If they do this the child will be fine and in fact divorce is a good thing because now both parents can be happy. This may (sort of) be true in the case of the parents but it is not the case for the children (though of course, during divorce, lack of conflict is better than conflict).
It also said that research has shown that, actually, mothers almost always come off worse than fathers. Not just for financial reasons – not the case for me thank goodness – but because, women are significantly less likely than men to have another long-term relationship or get married, even if they get divorced in their 30s. And another relationship gets less likely as they get older. It’s made even more less likely if the mother is the one with custody of the children. Men on the other hand are more likely to have another relationship and that likelihood gets greater as they get older. This makes sense to me in some ways but not in others. Does it basically mean that men are always coupling off with younger women who have never been married? Otherwise, where are all these women coming from?!
The reason that children are never entirely ok after a divorce is to do with having to split themselves between the two lives and homes of their parents. They say that they never fully feel part of either, are forced to grow up and form their own ideas about morality and ethics at a far younger age than children from homes where the parents are together (due to parents having different rules and ways of living so they have to decide on what they want for their own beliefs) and that they even adapt different ways of acting in each household to appease the parents, which in the end leads them to never feel sure who they really are. This bit rings true to me and confirmed what i suspected. Because i saw it in my step-son. It was so obvious that he was a completely different person in each house, even when he was only four. He had a split personality. You could feel, and see, him changing personality on the drive between her house and ours. I really worried what that was doing to him psychologically.
I haven’t read to the end yet. But basically what it is saying is that if you are the 2/3 of people divorcing, or thinking of divorcing, where there is no seriously compelling reason (abuse, violence etc) then, it is best, for the kids at least, to stay together. Because they have discovered that even kids whose parents were unhappy but stayed together, were emotionally better off than those kids whose parents didn’t.
Its gutting reading i can tell you. I feel horrible about what this is doing to E and i didn’t even get the choice!!! M wouldn’t even discuss the possibility of staying together. Because he is such a selfish c...
I think that the only thing i can do is to continue as long as i can to make it so that M does not have E over night so that his main home is here, to try and avoid the feeling of being split for as long as possible. Never to agree to the alternate weeks with each parent thing (i had decided that already after reading an account from a child who said they had fewer friends because of this cos their friends didn’t bother meeting them after school cos they never knew which house they were in) and always to be aware of the split of allegiances that E will feel. And talk about it with him as soon as he is able, so at least it is a feeling that is out in the open and maybe can be dealt with. The kids in the book weren’t able to discuss this feeling because they didn’t want to upset their parents and felt they were the only ones going through it.
Other than that i can’t think what to do!
It’s horrible. I feel horrible. Depressed, wretched, upset and a failure. I love that child so, so much and i don’t want for this to have had to happen to him!!!
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Saturday, 9 July 2011
I've just had a look back at these posts. They are almost all bitter and angry. I'm not all the time, but I am every time I post here.
Probably M left cos I'm bitter and angry? Probably M shouldn't have been born.
Yesterday the guy who has just been promoted to as new head of all our companies in Europe gave a bit of a talk to my part of the company. I already knew a lot of it. It didn't make it any the less facinating. He has done A LOT with his life. A lot of it amazing, a lot of it really interesting.
He is funny, charismatic, highly-intelligent, fluent in languages you wouldn't expect, a caring father to 4 kids, driven, rich, a bit of an Eco-warrior hippy at times and also pretty damn gorgeous. (Married. Of course :o)
He's only 44.
And where am I at 37?
Exactly.
Still, at least I'm not M.
Driveling on about how I'm being unfair to insist on him having proper accomodation for our son because he can only earn 210 a week.
WANKER.
What does that make me? I married the dick.
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Probably M left cos I'm bitter and angry? Probably M shouldn't have been born.
Yesterday the guy who has just been promoted to as new head of all our companies in Europe gave a bit of a talk to my part of the company. I already knew a lot of it. It didn't make it any the less facinating. He has done A LOT with his life. A lot of it amazing, a lot of it really interesting.
He is funny, charismatic, highly-intelligent, fluent in languages you wouldn't expect, a caring father to 4 kids, driven, rich, a bit of an Eco-warrior hippy at times and also pretty damn gorgeous. (Married. Of course :o)
He's only 44.
And where am I at 37?
Exactly.
Still, at least I'm not M.
Driveling on about how I'm being unfair to insist on him having proper accomodation for our son because he can only earn 210 a week.
WANKER.
What does that make me? I married the dick.
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Thursday, 23 June 2011
Has already Eaton
Ha ha hahahahahaha! :))))))
(White coats enter stage left :o)
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(White coats enter stage left :o)
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Monday, 30 May 2011
Enough
Fucking fed up and at the end of my tether. Beyond it probably.
Don't come anywhere near me unless you want to get screamed and sworn at. If I could kick people in the teeth I probably would.
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Don't come anywhere near me unless you want to get screamed and sworn at. If I could kick people in the teeth I probably would.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Monday, 4 April 2011
Sobering fact
Despite what people say, nobody really cares about what you're going through but yourself,
most people say they'd love to help but don't,
and those very, very few that would, you can't get to when you need them most.
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most people say they'd love to help but don't,
and those very, very few that would, you can't get to when you need them most.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Monday, 21 March 2011
I'm having trouble coping
On my own I'd be fine. No probs. Moderate stress. I'd get over it, I'd be alright.
Me plus The Baby. That's so hard. Full time job, not enough time, not enough sleep, maximum stress. So much so I'm beginning to feel permanently nauseous. Al this also means I cry at absolutely anything.
And that's with my family around. In April they're all going abroad. And M is moving away in April too.
Just me, The Baby (a more and more energetic baby), and my full time job and permanent nauseating stress. For 2 weeks.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't dreading it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Me plus The Baby. That's so hard. Full time job, not enough time, not enough sleep, maximum stress. So much so I'm beginning to feel permanently nauseous. Al this also means I cry at absolutely anything.
And that's with my family around. In April they're all going abroad. And M is moving away in April too.
Just me, The Baby (a more and more energetic baby), and my full time job and permanent nauseating stress. For 2 weeks.
I would be lying if I said I wasn't dreading it.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Sofa
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