Starting to wonder sometimes if I'm making the wrong choice, sticking around here in Seattle. Staying home with Ravenna, living on very tight financial means, tying ourselves to Jaimes, who can be very unpredictable and at times exceedingly difficult.
I want to enable Jaimes and Ravenna to have a good relationship. At the same time, he has little to no respect for me, and so will at times treat me with utter contempt, or he act in ways that are completely inappropriate. What sort of example am I setting for Ravenna to perpetuate this?
Then there is the issue of support. So many people that I used to consider friends have dropped out of my life in the last few years, either after I had Ravenna, or when Jaimes and I split. There are some still around who have proven themselves beyond any doubt, but lately they are busier and busier with their own lives. Seattle is becoming a rather lonely place for me.
I'm not sure I like the way that MN is developing or that I have a great desire to live there again, but at least there I would have family around. That's something special that Ravenna is missing right now.
I love being with Ravenna all day every day and it would break my heart in some small way to give that up to go back to work, but I could make us a good living, and who's to say that some other daily arrangement wouldn't be just as good for her? Children often love day care and pre school and thrive in environments with other children.
I'm so torn up about it all.
What's the right thing?
Is there a right thing?
If I did something else, then she'd be missing everything she has now; my full attention all day every day, a few hours most days spent playing with her father who adores and dotes on her, relationships with several close friends of mine who are really are a sort of "family" to her...and that's all special too. She's such an amazing child, and she's really thrived so far.
Would I be happier somewhere else? Or even here, still, but doing something else? Maybe.
Is that worth giving up these things? I just don't know.
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3 comments:
You should find a way to be both happy as well as feel strong and complete. Almost certainly this means changing what sounds like an abusive and manipulative environment.
For some reason, one of the big lessons library school has taught me is that there is no right or wrong thing to do, only tradeoffs.
Some tradeoffs are worth the trade.
Children are little information sponges. The need to be, because there is so much they need to learn. They also tend to think that whatever their environment is, and how people around them are treated, is normal and the way things are supposed to be.
You also need to consider yourself in this. Even the youngest of children know when their parents are unhappy.
Whatever you do, make sure it's your decision and not someone else's. You are the one who has to live with it.
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