My ex-wife and I only really got along during the early days of our courtship. Back then, it was all about boxes of chocolates and extravagant bouquetsyoung love with a pinch of madness. But the moment we found out a baby was on the way and our parents all but marched us down the aisle, things started to unravel. Not enough for us to sprint to the nearest solicitor after a year of marriage and the arrival of our son, but enough for us to bicker religiously a few times a week over absolutely nothing.
Luck was mostly on my side: I was busy working all hours while my wife stayed home minding our boy, so we didnt cross paths mucha mild blessing, really. As long as we avoided each other and I spoiled the child during my limited freedom, life was tolerable. Maybe this is what possessed us to roll the dice on a second child when our son turned four.
The arrival of our second bundle brought us closer somehowat least, it tricked us into thinking that domestic life wasnt too bad. We became preoccupied with the arrant chaos of child-rearing, homework woes, and toy explosions in every corner.
After the second came the third (yes, we apparently had more optimism than sense). I worked even longer hours, and my wife seemed content (or at least resigned). Saving money was a foreign concept, and determined not to let the kids miss out on anything, I kept chipping away in the office. I even tried to spoil my wife a bit, but apparently not to her satisfaction, as she rocked up with divorce papers when our eldest hit 11 and the youngest was just 4. Oh, and she announced shed met a new man.
Was I shocked? Not a bit. Id half expected her to stumble across another fellowbetween the school run and playgroups, she had time, after all. I was the one perpetually working, brain fried from thinking about little but nappies, school trips, and mortgage payments. Still, I was utterly floored when she insisted I take the children.
She was their mother, always up to her elbows in snacks and school lettersnow, suddenly, shed had enough and started with the ultimatums. She warned that if she had to drag the kids into this new marriage, shed rather bundle them off to some childrens home or whatever. Apparently, she and her soon-to-be husband were plotting to have their own baby, and she had no time for those lot.
Classic.
