Youngest Daughter’s GCSE results marked the beginning of a downward slope for her. In the days following the results I felt like I was walking a very high tightrope with no safety net. Everything I said or suggested (or even didn’t say or suggest) would be met with an explosion of rage and a slammed door. […]
Tag: life
Teens
In the midst of all of the worry about money and what, if anything, E intends financially for December, life goes on. Despite the fact that I’m living in a state of almost constant anxiety about money, most of my time at home is still spent cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and shouting at the kids […]
Bully
When I was 15, I was bullied by a group of about ten boys in my year. I was the new girl. They were a gang that (ridiculously), called themselves The Swarm. Their MO was to slowly approach and surround their target in the school playground, whilst slowly saying the word ‘swarm’. Once they’d done […]
Money
The children’s reactions to E’s decision to withhold payment of the money were varied. Apart from Oldest Daughter, I didn’t tell them what had happened for a week or so. To be honest, I was hoping that E had forgotten, or was just making a point before he paid the money. When it became clear […]
Food
When Oldest Daughter was 18 months old, she came down with a nasty bout of gastro-enteritis. Literally everything she ate went straight through her, causing her huge distress (and causing me a huge amount of washing and carpet cleaning). The best treatment for this was just to give her minimal, very plain, food and lots […]
Swimming
Throughout everything that’s happened with E, one thing that has helped is the fact that I am, by nature, an optimist. I have always tried to find a way out of any negative situation (and I was in a fair few financial ones over the years with E), however, I must admit, after the last couple […]
Valuation
I received a third email from E last week pressuring me to sell the house. This one was even shorter than the others: “Hi Haven’t had a reply re getting the house on the market. It’s been 6 weeks since I raised it and 2 weeks since my last message and with no response my […]
Not Waving
I saw a picture on Facebook the other day. It was called ‘the two faces of depression’ and showed one face showing too much emotion and one face showing none at all. Whilst it obviously missed a lot of important stuff about depression, it rang a bell with me. Fortunately, most of the time, my […]
Spots
In the midst of the emotional whirlwind following Youngest Daughter’s GCSE results, I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from E asking how she’d got on. I don’t know why I was surprised. I know he pretty much ignores every email I send him, but this is his daughter, so surely this was exactly […]
Losing
When your partner leaves you for another woman, you’re inevitably seen as the ‘loser’. No matter how many people tell you that you’re ‘better off without him’ or that he’s ‘made a mistake he’ll regret’, that it’s ‘his loss’, or even that his new relationship ‘will never last’, the simple fact of the matter is that, […]
He-total: Life without Ex 