My ex drank a lot, he would be a time bomb while drunk and it put a lot on my mental health. I would come home from working 14 hours and would have to try and be careful around him as if I said the wrong thing or if he found something like a late bill he would get hostile and sometimes even violent. Granted he never physically hurt me but I couldn’t deal with living with that fear anymore.
He hated my dog, threatened multiple times to get rid of my dog saying I had to choose. Blamed me and my dog anytime our son 2M was sick or had any minor bruise. He was an amazing guy when we got married but his family moved into the same town as us, and something in him changed. I tried so hard to make it work, to explain to him how I felt but constantly it was either promises that he’s sorry and would change but never would or he’d just put me down and make me feel invalid.
After over a year of being treated so poorly and being afraid of going home from work some nights I left. I couldn’t deal with it anymore. I moved into my own place in the city I work in, struggling to make ends meet but I’m a lot happier and feel like I can actually love and care for my son like a mother should.
But here’s where I feel like the bad guy. My parents blame me for everything. They blame me for leaving him, the state I live in required us to do child support court which I tried to cancel it out knowing they’d get mad at me about it. But I couldn’t, and I’m constantly told that I’m just a selfish person and a bad mother.
Yes they know everything that happened and why I left him, but I guess im at fault for it and they also hate my friends thinking that they “put ideas in my head” it’s not like I’m going out and partying or being a dumb teenager or something, I’m just working to make ends meet and trying to go back to school to give my son the best chance in life.
So am I the bad guy for choosing what I felt was best for myself and my kid?