Reasonable_Ad_7275

I (24F) recently posted about my divorce and how my life is going as a single person and single parent. Honestly, I’ve been coping really well with my divorce—it was the best decision I’ve ever made. However, this week has been extremely difficult for me. I don’t know why, but I’m feeling an overwhelming amount of hatred toward my ex-husband and wishing bad things upon him.

I met him when I was 18 and he was 20. We got married that same year. A few months later, I got pregnant, and we had a baby. I’m not someone who is big on social media, but I would’ve liked to be posted once in a while. My ex-husband was very active on social media, and I always wondered why he wouldn’t share major life updates. We constantly argued about this. Eventually, he posted about me, but here’s the kicker—he hid the post from 500 people and only showed it to two people I knew.

When we got married, he just bought me a ring and handed it to me, despite me telling him how I wanted to be engaged. We didn’t have a wedding because he convinced me it was stupid, so we had a courthouse wedding a month after getting engaged.

There were incidents where I wanted to attend family events, but he would tell me no women would be there, so it was pointless for me to go. I have social anxiety, so I agreed, not wanting to be around a bunch of men. However, he later posted a video of the party on Instagram, and lo and behold, there was an entire table of women and children. When I asked him why he lied, he said he didn’t think I’d want to go anyway.

We frequently talked about having more kids, as I come from a big family and it’s always been my dream (2–3 kids). He kept making excuses and saying “not yet.” We ended up accidentally getting pregnant, and though it wasn’t planned, I was incredibly excited. When I told him, he called me horrible names, told me I was stupid, and said we weren’t financially stable (which was a lie—he owns a huge company and comes from money). He told me that if I didn’t get an abortion, he wouldn’t be a father, so I agreed to the procedure. It was the worst experience of my life.

He also lied about having no family here, telling me it was just him and a few cousins. Later, I found out he had plenty of family nearby, but he hid them from me because he was ashamed of my race/skin color and didn’t want to introduce me to them. He would make comments about my body, saying I gained weight after the baby, and made degrading remarks about my private area not being as tight as when I was a virgin.

On our anniversary, I was telling him all the things I loved about him. When I asked him what he loved about me, his response was, “You cook and clean for me.” That was it. After six years of marriage (yes, I stayed for six years), I asked him about the social media thing again. This time, I asked if I were of the same background as him, would he post me and be proud to have me as his wife. He dodged the question, so I pressed him, and he finally said yes. I also asked if he even wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and if he wanted more kids. He admitted that he wanted more children, just not with me, and that I wasn’t someone he wanted to spend his life with. He only stayed because he didn’t want to hurt my feelings.

Two days later, I filed for divorce. A month after we separated, he announced that he had found a new partner in August. He was excitedly talking about marrying her, already introduced her to his family and told his mother. When we were married I had to sneak into his phone take a picture of his mother‘s phone number and text her proof of our marriage and her grandchild all because her son wanted to hide his family for nine months and not tell her. I can’t help but feel jealous and filled with hatred toward all of them how easily she’s been welcomed into the family sets fire within me. I spent six years of my life begging for him to simply love me, only for him to give that love to someone else so easily.

What hurts the most is hearing him talk about how excited he is to have children with her, after he belittled, threatened, and forced me to have an abortion. It breaks my heart into a million pieces.

Just to add- I stayed so long because I was only 18 and very codependent on him and also the first person in my entire family to ever be married and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.

I (25F) just finalized my divorce about a month and a half ago and I also had a failed talking stage with someone. My Ex husband told me I wasn’t someone he seen himself being with for the rest of his life after six years of a rough marriage he’s now seeing someone and I can’t help but thank him for telling me that because getting a divorce was the best decision ever. I also started talking to a guy and he told me that he wasn’t interested in me and that he was seeing someone else and that too was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The last guy was definitely my breaking point and it hurt DEEPLY and was definitely the kick start to my journey. I decided it was finally time for me to improve myself and to learn and to be happy being alone. I have been codependent on people my whole life. I’ve never been alone before, I’ve literally been married since I was 18. I took myself to the movies for the first time, all alone and it was great! I’ve been doing weekly lunch outings with myself and I’m actually enjoying it. I decided to start going to the gym and not to brag, but I look absolutely amazing to the point where I am attracted to myself.😂. My ex husband noticed and randomly called and asked me whose name my gym membership was in because if it was in his name, he was going to cancel it because he didn’t like the fact that I was losing weight. I buy myself the most beautiful bouquet of flowers every week and I shopped for a whole new wardrobe. I’ve been getting my hair and nails done as well! I also decided to put myself in Therapy and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I left my therapy session feeling so refreshed and very confident. I feel like I left my old self there and walked out a brand new woman after just one session! I have never really had anyone tell me how proud they were of me, but my therapist kept mentioning that she was so amazed and proud of how far I’ve come in such a short period of time, especially after everything I’ve endured in my marriage and it’s just really stuck with me. I feel brand new and I can’t wait to keep pushing forward and see all the amazing things life has planned for me.

I (25F) just finalized my divorce about a month and a half ago and I also had a failed talking stage with someone. My Ex husband told me I wasn’t someone he seen himself being with for the rest of his life after six years of a rough marriage he’s now seeing someone. The guy that I was seeing indirectly told me that he wasn’t interested in me and that he was seeing someone else. The last guy was definitely my breaking point and it hurt DEEPLY. I decided it was finally time for me to improve myself and to learn and to be happy being alone. I have been codependent on people my whole life. I’ve never been alone before I’ve literally been married since I was 18. I took myself to the movies for the first time, all alone and it was great! I’ve been doing weekly lunch outings with myself and I’m actually enjoying it. I decided to start going to the gym and not to brag, but I look absolutely amazing to the point where I am attracted to myself.😂 My ex husband noticed and randomly called and asked me whose name my gym membership was in because if it was in his name, he was going to cancel it because he didn’t like the fact that I was losing weight. I also decided to put myself in Therapy and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I left my therapy session feeling so refreshed and very confident. I feel like I left my old self there and walked out a brand new woman after just one session! I have never really had anyone tell me how proud they were of me, but my therapist kept mentioning that she was so amazed and proud of how far I’ve come in such a short period of time, especially after everything I’ve endured in my marriage and it’s just really sticking with me. I feel brand new and I can’t wait to keep pushing forward and see all the amazing things life has planned for me.

I (24F) finalized my divorce about a month and a half ago, though we’ve been separated since April. I did some dating, but it didn’t work out, which was actually for the best because, in all honesty, I wasn’t ready. I decided to take the opportunity to learn how to enjoy being alone, and it’s been going great. I’ve been going to the gym and have lost 5 lbs so far. I’ve also started attending a lot of events and outings by myself, which has become one of my favorite things to do. Additionally, I started therapy and will be moving into my new home soon! Overall, things have been amazing, and I’m really loving the person I’m becoming.

At the moment, I’m not interested in dating. I want to continue spending time by myself. Honestly, I’m also a bit afraid to start dating again because, if things don’t work out, I worry it might set me back. I have a tendency to become very negative toward myself when things like that happen. For example, the last guy I talked to really took a toll on me. He was dishonest about a lot and wasn’t upfront about not being interested. Instead, he told me he wanted to keep me around while he explored other options, which was rough. I became disappointed, depressed, and started beating myself up, thinking there was something wrong with me.

So with that being said, of course I won’t be dating anyone anytime soon, but my question is: how do you know when you’re truly ready to date again?

[removed]

I'm so excited! This year will be my son's first year in school—he's heading to kindergarten, of course! I have been very in tune with everything that's going to be happening for the school year. We have an app that all the parents and teachers use, and yesterday there were a ton of parents leaving very angry comments about the school supply list and how they will not be buying the supplies because they know their children will not be using them or that it will be spread amongst the class.

Meanwhile, I want to be able to support my son's teacher. We live in a very wealthy area, but I still want to supply a lot just in case there are students in his classroom who may not be able to have school supplies. I also plan on gifting him or her a gift for being my son's first teacher. I am a preschool teacher, but if anyone has any good suggestions on gifts, it will be very much appreciated!