My Wife Is Leaving Me for Another Man and Threatens to Get Rid of the Children Unless I Take Them

My ex-wife and I only really got along at the very start of our relationship. During that glorious honeymoon stage of chocolates and sprawling bouquets, we convinced ourselves we were madly in love. But then we discovered we were expecting a baby, and with both sets of parents breathing down our necks, a wedding was suddenly in order. Thats when the cracks began to show. Not quite enough to trigger a divorce after a year and a son, but we certainly squabbled several times a week, often over absolutely nothing.

Luckily, I was working long hours and my wife stayed home with the baby, which meant we could each enjoy a welcome break from one another. So long as we didnt bump into each other too often and I managed to spoil the little one during my spare time, life wasnt too dreadful. Perhaps thats why, when our son turned four, we thought, Why not try for baby number two?

A second child did bring us closer, or at least gave us the illusion that our family was running smoothly. There was hardly time to notice our own misgivings while we fussed over childcare and shared worries about wellington boots and school runs.

And then, after number two came child number three, and I dove deeper into my workmy wife didn’t seem to mind. Saving money was never our forte, so to make sure our children never felt left out, I worked as much as I possibly could. I also tried to pamper my wife, though apparently not as much as she would have liked, because by the time our eldest was eleven and the youngest just four, she turned up with divorce papers and announced she had found someone else.

It wasn’t a Shakespearean tragedy for meI cant say I was taken aback. She had plenty of time to meet someone new between school drop-offs and nursery pick-ups, while I was chained to my job and mostly preoccupied with the family. What truly floored me, though, was her sudden keenness to leave our children in my care.

Shed always been hands-on as a mum, but now she was tired, apparently, and started lobbing threats my way. She told me, quite breezily, that if she had to drag the kids into her new marriage, she might just send them to an orphanage or something dreadful like that. She and her new boyfriend were keen to have their own bundle of joy and, quite frankly, she didnt want to bring those lot along.