Today is the one year anniversary of the straw that broke the camel's back and a year to the day when I made up my mind that I was getting out and moving on.
It was a NFL playoff Sunday, just like today. The Vikings were playing. Who, I do not have a clue. It was snowing. There was a lot of beer drinking and cigar smoking going on at our house. The Vikings lost that day and after the game all hell broke loose at our house.
My husband was yelling at me. My kids were screaming as they were afraid. My oldest child, then 12, stepped in between my husband and me and told him to stop talking to her mom like that. He turned on her..."Get the f*** out of my house. You're not welcome in my house ever again." You get the idea. It got very ugly and I had to get my kids out of the house. So there we are, me and my 4 kids driving in the snow on Sunday night.
I ended up going back later that night, kids in tow. But I made a decision that day and the Momma Bear in me came out. I guess it's one thing to be treated badly ourselves, but when someone treats our children horribly, we can't stand for it. My daughter and my husband had never been close and he had always treated her like someone else's child. Her dad had been witness to one too many drunken Sundays when the Vikings lost that I knew he probably wasn't going to stand for many more of these episodes.
I knew I was getting out and I knew it would be sooner rather than later. I wasn't exactly sure when but I had to have a plan. I started planning and I started thinking and I started preparing myself emotionally for what I knew would be ahead of me.
One year later...not a doubt in my mind, I did the right thing. I know this because I feel an immense sense of relief. I know this because I hear my kids happily playing as I write and I know they are better off. I know this because we are moving on and it feels right.
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