you had a mother.
remember than.
your daughter needs you.
grow up, be there for her, as she nay be for you.

Jennifer, it's not a matter of "growing up". I live by the motto "never judge another person until you have walked a mile in their shoes". As an onlooker it is easy to give advice, but very rarely is it helpful!
Also, have you ever considered that not everyone has grown up with a mum like yours?

Thanks girls for a bit of insight. I appreciate it.

However, like Felicity has said, its not a matter of "growing up". Its all about coming to terms with the situation we have found ourselves in and after 5 VERY long years of dealing with this, no one has the right to tell me to "grow up".

I dont feel I have to defend myself about my situation, because no-one has walked a mile with me, and that goes for everyone on this website. Everyone here has there own stories, own regrets and we're all just trying to get on with life. I love my daughter-I would die for her, and I would put aside my own happiness for the sake of hers. And that is the decision I have made.

We're are all here for support from each other. Not slanging matches.

Hello Kerryn,

I would really like to hear from you. I am only new to this site, and am here unfortunately because I am going through a court battle with my ex-husband at the moment and my children are in the middle of it. In the town I live in, I feel very isolated as I dont know of any other mums in the same situation.

Kylie

Two years on, reading this for the 1st time today, I want to rip Jennfer a new one. I'm imagingining that since the last time she posted that insensitive comment someone's ripped many new bungholes on plain-sight places of her person!!!!!!

Here's a clue, as soon as that little bundle of joy pops out, you have grown up. But nothing can prepare you for when things head south and you discovered that after 8 years, the man you thought you knew turned into the biggest liar and manipulator and barristered to his lice infested head!!. And why? Because I left the ******* abuser. How dare I? (eyeroll)

Maybe you're a filthy lawyer. Or even better yet, you're newly married and in total denial. Or you just plain believe everything that your hump tells you. Nahh....your a ******* bloke in disguise huh?

Women may be cruel when it comes to how they treat their ex-men, yet to her own child she will be so fiercly protective and sacrificial to the detrement of herself. Men who snatch children off their wives to get sole custody are bums who don't want to work, sit on their lazy arses while their numerous flames do all the real dirty work like nurturing, feeding , clothing and use their kids as personal slaves and drink beer all day until they pass out like my effing ex does. And because they are MEN, no one argues and belittles them when they bleed you dry from all the court cases. Look at how a judge or lawyer talks to a man as opposed a woman. Men get answers and help. We get the ****ed around.

Aplogies to the geniune men out their, this comment not based on you.

The sad thing is that I can't take care of my son now even if by a twist of fate his father were to die, I'm dying of cancer and after 5 years of fighting for my angel, the only fight i have left in me is to just stay on this earth as long as possible just to see him if only from a distance. All i do is work, i don't socialise anymore, certainly don't anesthasize myself with drugs or alcohol.

To all the mummies, my heart breaks again and again each time I read another account of yet another muck-sucking arsehole that has not only ruined a womans life, but the child's future.

However I have a plan, as i'm dying anyway, i'll be meeting many arseholes down there so please feel free to post names that anyone needs eternal nasty Valerie style satanic torture. Hah, I can teach that horned guy a thing or two about befitting punishments.

YOU GO GIRL!!! LOL I absolutely love the way you put your words together - it describes EXACTLY how I feel. Just to update you guys on where I am at: I haven't seen my four children for two years now as he has been moving them around each time I locate them. Punishment? You guessed it - the courts do NOTHING! But hey, I'm alive, Praise God, and I have a wonderful life up here in the mountains. Ironically I am now working with 125 highschool children (same ages as my children) who are my source of joy and purpose in life! I found out today that my children's father, who yes is a bum who has hardly worked a day in his life, has just moved the children AGAIN, just after I managed to track them down through a friend who's kids go to their school! Yep, I have that sickening, sinking feeling I have lost them forever and don't know how long it will take to find them again, but God is so good to me, he took that feeling away and asked me to trust in HIM and that is the ONLY WAY I will ever get through this life without drugs, alcohol, anti-depressants etc. So Valerie, I pray you will meet me in heaven one day, cause a woman with your strength and integrity deserves a place in heaven!
God Bless