My ex just didn’t show up tonight. He completely forgot about his daughter! Has this happened to anyone else? Has your ex just forgotten their children???
I hadn’t heard from him and usually he texts by 5:30 pm to say he’ll be at my house around 6 to collect her but tonight, nothing. I finally texted him at 6 pm “hey I haven’t heard from you. Are you still coming?” He has “read” receipts on his texting and I could tell that he immediately read my text. He quickly called and said he got caught up with work stuff and lost track of time. False! If he were working, he wouldn’t have read my text that quickly because he always has his phone on silent.
Truth…he was lying in bed scrolling through Facebook, creeping on folks. This is the loser I married and had my sweet little girl with. Sometimes, it still feels like a nightmare and I no longer remember being with him. It feels like it’s always just been my baby girl and me.
When I got off the phone, I could feel my blood boiling. I am always elated when he bails, because that means I get more time with my sweet little bundle. But, completely forgetting about her disturbs me on several levels. One, as her mom, it concerns me that he is so absent-minded, that he would forget about her. How can I feel secure knowing she is safe when she is with him? Will he forget her in the car one day? When he starts getting overnights, will he just forget about her and head off to work?
Two, will he always be this absent-minded and careless? I worry that when she is older, she will start to recognize his lack of attachment for her and I don’t know how that will affect her as a young woman. Will it completely obliterate her self-esteem? I need to continually reinforce her beauty, strength, intelligence, kindness to ensure she doesn’t seek approval from strangers.
If you’re also co-parenting with a self-absorbed loser, I offer my deepest sympathies. Not only to you as a parent, but to your sweet little ones who didn’t ask to have someone so thoughtless in their lives. If you are lucky enough to already be divorced and no longer financially responsible for said loser, congrats! Sometimes, it’s one of the few positives that I can find in the mess I’ve created.
