+1 they don’t want to be the target, and they are still socialized to believe each of their parents is always thinking about and caring for them. |
+1 There's three sides to every story. OP should take a step back and re-assess |
FWIW, I agree that its crappy to use your kids like that. But dang, calling someone an "absolute worm" is a GREAT insult. Well done. Even though, yeah, shame on you for the abuser response. But well done on the insults! |
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Poor kid. He is supposed to come first. He is not, and now you are now the bad guy also.
I have been in such position twice. I left both times as it got so bad for everyone -mentally and physically. I removed myself completely from even seeing the abusers and my kids. Not seeing my kids was not my choice. It was extremely hard but necessary. All worked out without me blaming the kids. |
+1000 You are an ADULT, he is a CHILD. You are on the verge of screwing this kid up massively, OP, if you don't learn how to handle this as an adult and a mother should. |
How lovely. This thread is proof positive that women get no fair shakes. |
| Their frontal lobes are not thoroughly formed. They have not been to therapy. How can you expect them to act like an adult would who has processed and been through therapy? |
Same. I raged inside when my mom didn't stand up for me or herself. Now, as an adult, she constantly wants to vent about him to me, and I just can't. I finally asked her not to speak about my father to me anymore, and she stopped. I have a separate relationship with both of them now. They don't talk about each other to me. |
Good. But don’t think being married w kids or coparenting w an abuser or selfish narc is easy. All you have are bad options. So you pick the least bad bad option. |
Oh, don't worry - my mom was verbally and emotionally abusive as hell too. She's no innocent victim in this family history, as much as she liked to pretend she was. |
| Having been raised in an unhappy family and from what I see now as an adult, I think that the vast majority of time, both parents are problematic. There isn't one good parent and one bad parent. Maybe one parent is less shi**y than then other but they both have flaws and lack the insight to minimize damage to the kids. |
I thought it sounded stupid. |
Exactly. I’m the poster who at age 50 that can look back and see that perhaps my mom really was weighing her choices carefully and doing her best. But her decision to stay was also based on her own messiness that led to a bunch of toxic nonsense from her also. It certainly didn’t feel like she was carefully considering er children. And she was a fabulous mom in many ways. But man, I hate looking back at how we were in the middle of their nonsense. I begged to be able to live with my grandmother my last two years of high school to get away from BOTH of them, but they would not let me. As soon as I graduated college, I moved to NYC and saw them for just a few days at Xmas and thanksgiving. I was “gray rocking” then decades before I knew the term. |
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OP and any battered women, read Lundy Bancroft. Very few people understand what you’re going through or how you can heal, protect yourself, protect your child. DCUM is not a good resource for you.
I’m sorry for your pain. The one at the top of the list is fiction but the rest can be helpful for you. https://lundybancroft.com/books/ |
If you knew anything about the U.S. family court system you’d know that your abusive spouse will be right there abusing you via your children or more, once divorced and 50/50 coparenting. |