D7 has just left with her father for her week with him. I'm feeling deflated, sad, and not like doing much of anything. I'm guessing I'm not the only one who feels like this when we say goodbye to our kids for the coming week. On the one hand, I recognize that I really do need time on my own, especially as D7 is a very high-contact kid and I'm temperamentally something of an introvert. On the other hand, the place just seems empty without her, and I'm acutely conscious of being a "broken family". In addition, having to deal with her father, even just the few minutes of exchange, leaves me fighting the urge to throw up (although we both behave appropriately around her, fortunately). I have an invitation to a friend's for a barbecue, but don't really want to go. What do other people do to get themselves out of the melancholy place when they've handed over their kid for the coming week?
(Also, I've been dealing with D7's anger with her father for [in her view] putting his new wife and stepdaughter ahead of her. From my perspective as an adult, this looks like a somewhat tumultuous transition to a "new normal" rather than a catastrophe, but D7 would disagree. So I've had her telling me she hates her dad, she hates his home, etc etc; with me saying I understand that she's feeling bad, that it takes time to get used to transitions, adjustments might be tough but things will be okay in the end - so part of me feels badly about sending her off, even though the stronger rational part of me knows that her interests are best served by maintaining a strong relationship with him and that means she has to go with him whether she wants to or not, and that I can't let her make me feel guilty about this).
(Also, I've been dealing with D7's anger with her father for [in her view] putting his new wife and stepdaughter ahead of her. From my perspective as an adult, this looks like a somewhat tumultuous transition to a "new normal" rather than a catastrophe, but D7 would disagree. So I've had her telling me she hates her dad, she hates his home, etc etc; with me saying I understand that she's feeling bad, that it takes time to get used to transitions, adjustments might be tough but things will be okay in the end - so part of me feels badly about sending her off, even though the stronger rational part of me knows that her interests are best served by maintaining a strong relationship with him and that means she has to go with him whether she wants to or not, and that I can't let her make me feel guilty about this).
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