It started like any other day\u2014dishes in the sink, a half-eaten breakfast, and a five-year-old tugging at my shirt while I tried to log into a work meeting.<\/p>\n
But that day turned into something I never expected. I\u2019ve been married to Eric for twelve years. We have two kids: Lily, 10, and Brandon, 5. I manage <\/p>\n
everything\u2014diapers, meals, school forms, and bedtime tears\u2014while Eric provides financially but does little else.One night, while we were having dinner,<\/p>\n
Eric casually suggested we have a third baby. I almost dropped my fork.You don\u2019t even help with the two we have,\u201d I said. He responded with his usual line:<\/p>\n
\u201cI provide, you don\u2019t appreciate how easy you have it.\u201dHis mother and sister overheard and chimed in, telling me I was spoiled and needed to be more <\/p>\n
grateful. That\u2019s when it hit me: Eric didn\u2019t see me as a partner, just someone to take care of things. That night, Eric brought it up again. When I said no,<\/p>\n
he told me I didn\u2019t love him or the kids. I calmly replied, \u201cI\u2019ve grown up. There\u2019s a difference.\u201d He kicked me out. Before I left, I said, \u201cThe kids stay.<\/p>\n
You raise them if it\u2019s so easy.\u201d He refused. I walked out with just a bag and filed for divorce soon after. I got full custody,<\/p>\n
kept the house, and he now contributes through child support. I never wanted this, but sometimes rebuilding your life means letting the old one fall.<\/p>\n
For the first time, I\u2019m not waiting for someone else to show up\u2014I showed up for myself. Have you ever had to choose yourself over someone who wouldn\u2019t lift a finger for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It started like any other day\u2014dishes in the sink, a half-eaten breakfast, and a five-year-old tugging at my shirt while I tried to log into a work meeting. But that day turned into something I never expected. I\u2019ve been married to Eric for twelve years. We have two kids: Lily, 10, and Brandon, 5. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29820,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818\/revisions\/29820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnewsin34.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}