Weren't we cute? We were in our 20s--he, a couple of years older than I.
Nine years later, our marriage was a failed experiment, and I was on my own with two little girls. I had been a stay-at-home mom for several years, and my office skills had gone the way of the dinosaur. I had no clothes, no money, no job, and no help from him.
He actually sat back with his girlfriend, waiting with supreme confidence for me to fail, so they could swoop in and snag the girls, leaving me sobbing in the gutter.
Sorry, folks. Didn't work that way.
Oh, we were poor. We were always dirt poor. The penny jar got used for food at the end of the month. I made a conscious decision to have only one job, so that, while we might be poor, I would still have some time to spend with my children. I saw too many single moms who missed their kids' entire childhood. We were on food stamps and Medicaid. After five years, I managed to get him into court, and he had to pay a bit of child support. Not much, as he had parlayed a $40,000 (1984) a year job into $6.25 an hour, part time.
They do that. Look out for it.
His girlfriend told me, years later, how "proud" she was of me, for "making it." Now, wasn't that condescending?
She got SSS, and I got free. I figure that I got the best of the deal.
It's when you have had freedom taken away that you appreciate more..
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