You know what I’ll never understand? How someone could leave their partner with three little kids and one of them not even six months old yet, and instead of focus on settling into a stable coparenting routine, taking your time to settle the kids, making sure they know you’re not going anywhere, you instead rush immediately into a brand new ‘serious’ relationship and get pregnant so fast there’s barely a couple of years between your two youngest kids.
Additionally, I also can’t understand why as a woman you’d meet a man who has three children and instead of respecting those kids, taking it slow, giving him space to continue being a father, maintaining separate houses for a long while, slowly working up to meeting them and eventually building a positive relationship with them, you’d get pregnant so bloody quickly which means that father now has far fewer resources (including time and money) for his existing kids, those kids have to undergo the upheaval of a divorce and moving and a new sibling and stepmother while their shell shocked mother is working through grief, all within the span of a matter of months. Surely if you love that man you at least respect his children, and want them to be okay. You wouldn’t just nab the man, shack up and start playing happy new families two seconds after meeting. You would think anyone maternal enough to wanna be a parent and have a family would want to ensure it’s done as sensitively and slowly as possible to give the four kids the best chance of being happy siblings and reduce the possibility of jealousy and rivalry or feeling pushed out. His youngest with Helen probably gets peanuts of his time compared to his kid with S. There is literally no way their relationship hasn’t been impacted by him refocusing all of his energy on a new partner and new child before his youngest with Helen is out of nappies.
It just all blows my mind. There’s no wonder they’re doubling down on what anyone can see what a massively rushed mistake. They made their bed and now they have to lie in it. And his children are collateral damage. People leave marriages every day, that’s not a crime. But most people are committed enough to their children to try put them first through what is undoubtedly a challenging time. As a parent I honestly couldn’t sleep at night if I had done what they’ve done to those children. Breathtakingly selfish.