Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, I was the second (okay, actually THIRD) wife in this situation. XH likes to start a new family every 10 years.

No, they don’t learn. They act like they do. CH had done years of therapy and knew all the right things to say - took ownership for his failed marriages, acted like a great father, etc.

I don’t know if it’s narcissism, or what, because xH seems like such a nice, great guy. Not in a flashy way, he seems like such a chill and humble man. And he seems to be a good dad. But there’s this weird undercurrent of his kids trying desperately to get his approval, and I know because I felt this strange feeling I needed his approval, too (hence getting married to someone I shouldn’t have). So they all disliked me, but still loved him, and they love our child, which is good.

I don’t know what it is with guys like him. Because he’s absolutely not the stereotype of rich, loud, a-hole, etc. He comes across as a real salt-of-the-earth type. But when you ask for more than bare minimum stuff, he just shuts down and doesn’t respond. It’s bizarre.

This is my Dad, right down to the “humble, salt of the earth” vibe. They do it because they can, and because it’s easier than putting in the work. Honestly. I think that’s really all that it is. I used to think that my dad was this super complicated guy who had these great qualities and kind of a dark side at the same time. Now I realize that he just understands to bail when it gets hard and if you have enough resources, everyone around you will pick up the pieces. He has collected numerous wives and kids, and we all still seek his approval because he holds the cards as the patriarch. And no, it’s not about the money, we all just want to have a connection with our father. He knows this, and it imparts a certain kind of power. He understands not to abuse it, but it never has been and never will be a satisfying, reciprocal relationship.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you need to be screening for this BEFORE you go on the dates. I'm in a relationship now, but I dated divorced dad for a few years in my early to mid forties. If someone was divorced with kids, I found out ages of kids and how long the divorce had been final before agreeing to go out with him. Thus I would not have gone on a first date with any of these guys. And neither should you. Men with two ex wives and two sets of kids? Hell no.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha, I was the second (okay, actually THIRD) wife in this situation. XH likes to start a new family every 10 years.

No, they don’t learn. They act like they do. CH had done years of therapy and knew all the right things to say - took ownership for his failed marriages, acted like a great father, etc.

I don’t know if it’s narcissism, or what, because xH seems like such a nice, great guy. Not in a flashy way, he seems like such a chill and humble man. And he seems to be a good dad. But there’s this weird undercurrent of his kids trying desperately to get his approval, and I know because I felt this strange feeling I needed his approval, too (hence getting married to someone I shouldn’t have). So they all disliked me, but still loved him, and they love our child, which is good.

I don’t know what it is with guys like him. Because he’s absolutely not the stereotype of rich, loud, a-hole, etc. He comes across as a real salt-of-the-earth type. But when you ask for more than bare minimum stuff, he just shuts down and doesn’t respond. It’s bizarre.

This is my Dad, right down to the “humble, salt of the earth” vibe. They do it because they can, and because it’s easier than putting in the work. Honestly. I think that’s really all that it is. I used to think that my dad was this super complicated guy who had these great qualities and kind of a dark side at the same time. Now I realize that he just understands to bail when it gets hard and if you have enough resources, everyone around you will pick up the pieces. He has collected numerous wives and kids, and we all still seek his approval because he holds the cards as the patriarch. And no, it’s not about the money, we all just want to have a connection with our father. He knows this, and it imparts a certain kind of power. He understands not to abuse it, but it never has been and never will be a satisfying, reciprocal relationship.

PP. This is so interesting, I really think it's the humble/quiet vibe that threw me off with xH. I was used to the stereotypical "narcissistic" men who make everyone cower in fear, and knew to avoid them. Then along came this sweet, caring, artistic man who seemed so emotionally intelligent. Even though he wasn't even in the same state as his kids, he talked to them nightly and did all the right things - listened, validated, empathized, etc. He really seemed like a great guy who made some mistakes and was trying to do better.

When I later caught him cheating, driving under the influence, stealing money, etc after we had our first child, he never gaslighted me or argued. He'd admit to wrongdoing, act shameful, get in therapy without me even asking. After I caught him cheating the third time in three years, he still didn't try to defend himself or argue. He just quietly packed his things and left, gave me whatever I wanted with assets and custody. It was just SO weird.

Best I can figure is these are extremely avoidant men. They don't fight, they just shut down and then leave. So I think his kids keep the peace because it's the only way they can get that emotional closeness - and his conversations do feel emotionally close, even when you do eventually realize the closeness is just because he can repeat back what you say empathetically, rather than him expressing any real feelings or emotions for you. Like I remember I would ask him what he liked about me, and he couldn't name one thing on his own - he would just repeat back the things he knew I was good at in a caring tone. It's bizarre.

And absolutely yes to people picking up the pieces - his family and even one of his ex-wives will pick up the pieces for him when he screws up. He's also surrounded himself with much older women who see themselves as a surrogate mother and help him out, even buying him cars. Because he always comes across as such a nice guy who is just "going through a hard time".

OP here - Jesus, that's one of them! He was bullshitting be at the date about "going through hard time" and so on.

Anonymous wrote:I was surprised to find so many of these on the League and Hinge ! Men in their late 40s -mid 50s, with very young kids 2-9 yo. I went on dates with some of them (I’m a late 40s F). Ex-wives were 5-10 years younger than me and now the men were looking for a “stable” older woman who can co-parent. 1. One guy sold an IT company and married early 30s woman, had a baby and divorced after 5 years. His 1st marriage was 18 years long so he had 2 adult kids and a 4 yo 2. A late 40s man who never married but had a 2 yo baby he took from a vest young beautician exGF 3. A twice divorced 51 yo man with 6 yo daughter from a very high profile executive exW. They had a joint child in their 40s and the exW had 2 grown kids from prior marriage. She divorced him for drugs 4. A law partner 3 times divorced with young twins from last marriage and teen kids from 2bd . Adult kids from 1st. He just couldn’t stop getting married and making babies, like Musk.


It looks to me as if there is a whole new wave of second- and third divorces for successful professionally men. All these marriages were significantly shorter than 1st, which proves the statistics of large age gap being the risk for divorce.

Seriously, aren’t men able to learn from their first failed marriage ? And what their grown up kids think about all this ? Is it just me meeting them or there is a fairly large number of divorced men with 2nd set of kids ?

Anonymous wrote:This is my dad. I’m the eldest child. But I don’t have any helpful insights into why he is the way he is. Maybe some narcissism. Definitely wanted a “second chance.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My exDH is setting himself up to be one of these guys. Like the others described, he is quiet and comes off as low-key and from the outside everyone considers him a good guy. In reality he was abusive behind closed doors and has a lot of scary secrets. Even during truly awful high conflict divorce that he initiated, he somehow got many of our mutual friends in thrall to him and his story. Fortunately the courts did not follow suit.

I’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that covert narcissism is at play, and it sounds like that could describe some of the men on this thread, especially when it comes to the idea of discarding families on a predictable timeline. Look up the discard phase of covert narcissism if you’re in this situation.

I live on the west coast in a very tech/big-money community and see these families a lot now that my kids have been at their private school for a long time. You start to see new generations of kids from the same dad start fresh in preschool. It’s interesting because there is a bit of social censure behind closed doors but these guys have sufficient social capital in the community that people act approving and welcoming of them in public.

And their wives have similarly aged friends with whom they hang out. The fact that some people are critical of them in private is lost on them because, among their friends, who are other very wealthy women their age, no one seems to care. This is a specific group of very wealthy men and their second wives, not the type of men the OP describes in her post.

PP you’re replying to and these aren’t even very wealthy guys, just run of the mill UMC/rich dads who are a dime a dozen at any private school. They don’t stand out. The crazy thing in our community is that a lot of the wives are on the older side and having their first kids with these second/third round dads when the wives are in their late 30s/early 40s, which upends any stereotype about them being young, naive, or from another culture. I think that the women may have focused on their career or relocated a lot for work or just had bad luck dating, and they have a different perspective on being wife 2 or 3 and might be willing to ignore some of the obvious upfront downsides.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My exDH is setting himself up to be one of these guys. Like the others described, he is quiet and comes off as low-key and from the outside everyone considers him a good guy. In reality he was abusive behind closed doors and has a lot of scary secrets. Even during truly awful high conflict divorce that he initiated, he somehow got many of our mutual friends in thrall to him and his story. Fortunately the courts did not follow suit.

I’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that covert narcissism is at play, and it sounds like that could describe some of the men on this thread, especially when it comes to the idea of discarding families on a predictable timeline. Look up the discard phase of covert narcissism if you’re in this situation.

I live on the west coast in a very tech/big-money community and see these families a lot now that my kids have been at their private school for a long time. You start to see new generations of kids from the same dad start fresh in preschool. It’s interesting because there is a bit of social censure behind closed doors but these guys have sufficient social capital in the community that people act approving and welcoming of them in public.

And their wives have similarly aged friends with whom they hang out. The fact that some people are critical of them in private is lost on them because, among their friends, who are other very wealthy women their age, no one seems to care. This is a specific group of very wealthy men and their second wives, not the type of men the OP describes in her post.

PP you’re replying to and these aren’t even very wealthy guys, just run of the mill UMC/rich dads who are a dime a dozen at any private school. They don’t stand out. The crazy thing in our community is that a lot of the wives are on the older side and having their first kids with these second/third round dads when the wives are in their late 30s/early 40s, which upends any stereotype about them being young, naive, or from another culture. I think that the women may have focused on their career or relocated a lot for work or just had bad luck dating, and they have a different perspective on being wife 2 or 3 and might be willing to ignore some of the obvious upfront downsides.

Anonymous wrote:My husband has an excoworker who was with his 1st partner for 20 or so years There kids are now 25, 21 and 17 year old. The partner went on to have another child who is now 2 or so and the excoworker went on to marry a woman in her 20's from the Dominican Republic. He brought her to the states and they divorced a year later. Then he met another woman late 20's who he now has a 1 year old with. Oh hes 47 years old.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My exDH is setting himself up to be one of these guys. Like the others described, he is quiet and comes off as low-key and from the outside everyone considers him a good guy. In reality he was abusive behind closed doors and has a lot of scary secrets. Even during truly awful high conflict divorce that he initiated, he somehow got many of our mutual friends in thrall to him and his story. Fortunately the courts did not follow suit.

I’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that covert narcissism is at play, and it sounds like that could describe some of the men on this thread, especially when it comes to the idea of discarding families on a predictable timeline. Look up the discard phase of covert narcissism if you’re in this situation.

I live on the west coast in a very tech/big-money community and see these families a lot now that my kids have been at their private school for a long time. You start to see new generations of kids from the same dad start fresh in preschool. It’s interesting because there is a bit of social censure behind closed doors but these guys have sufficient social capital in the community that people act approving and welcoming of them in public.

And their wives have similarly aged friends with whom they hang out. The fact that some people are critical of them in private is lost on them because, among their friends, who are other very wealthy women their age, no one seems to care. This is a specific group of very wealthy men and their second wives, not the type of men the OP describes in her post.

Anonymous wrote:My exDH is setting himself up to be one of these guys. Like the others described, he is quiet and comes off as low-key and from the outside everyone considers him a good guy. In reality he was abusive behind closed doors and has a lot of scary secrets. Even during truly awful high conflict divorce that he initiated, he somehow got many of our mutual friends in thrall to him and his story. Fortunately the courts did not follow suit.

I’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that covert narcissism is at play, and it sounds like that could describe some of the men on this thread, especially when it comes to the idea of discarding families on a predictable timeline. Look up the discard phase of covert narcissism if you’re in this situation.

I live on the west coast in a very tech/big-money community and see these families a lot now that my kids have been at their private school for a long time. You start to see new generations of kids from the same dad start fresh in preschool. It’s interesting because there is a bit of social censure behind closed doors but these guys have sufficient social capital in the community that people act approving and welcoming of them in public.

Anonymous wrote:My husband has an excoworker who was with his 1st partner for 20 or so years There kids are now 25, 21 and 17 year old. The partner went on to have another child who is now 2 or so and the excoworker went on to marry a woman in her 20's from the Dominican Republic. He brought her to the states and they divorced a year later. Then he met another woman late 20's who he now has a 1 year old with. Oh hes 47 years old.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you need to be screening for this BEFORE you go on the dates. I'm in a relationship now, but I dated divorced dad for a few years in my early to mid forties. If someone was divorced with kids, I found out ages of kids and how long the divorce had been final before agreeing to go out with him. Thus I would not have gone on a first date with any of these guys. And neither should you. Men with two ex wives and two sets of kids? Hell no.