41: After much deliberation, I have decided not to title this.

Blogged on Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 by Rachael. Filed in Randomness.

You know what, it’s taken me about ten whole minutes just trying to figure out a title for this blog post, when I still have no idea what I’m even writing it about.

Uh.

Thank you all for your various helps and observations on my new theme, and I’m glad you all are enjoying it. Except for a few of you, you know who you are. Ha.

The weather outside is not so frightful anymore (hooray for impending spring! …I hope!) - but other things, sadly, are terribly frightful. Sure, I have gigantic and life-changing situations going on my life, but look what’s been happening at Virginia Tech. I don’t even need to link that because it’s all over the news, and all over the airwaves. It’s sad and awful and makes a person want to keep their kids home, locked away from all other people, for the rest of their lives. But that reaction, I think, would just end up creating a generation of people who are socially and emotionally incapable, and end up erupting into violence in some public place. What a terrible balancing act we must face as caretakers of children; that faint and blade-thin line between protecting them and allowing them to learn the hard way is oh so hard to see at times.

And referring back to my own situation (good grief, but I’m tired of writing about it here, lol), I will disclose a few details, just so that those are you who aren’t privy to everything (or even privy to one or two things) will have a reference point.

It’s really very simple: I kicked Tim out to protect my children from abuse and neglect. I will not go into any details about the abuse here, because it concerns my children and their privacy is of the utmost importance to me. If they know you, and they trust you, and they want to share something with you, then they can make that choice - but I will not broadcast it here. They are people with rights to privacy, and I’m determined to protect those rights.

(By the same token, you may not comment about any aspect of the abuse here, because that would violate that same privacy. Obviously, if you break the rule [whether purposefully or not], I will remove and delete the comment, and explain if necessary. )

Because of Tim’s abuse of the children, and his choice to behave in an abusive and neglectful manner, I will not allow him to parent them any more. My youngest child is Tim’s biologically, and he will get to see him and spend time with him; my oldest two are not his biologically, so I can, and will, keep them from any interaction with Tim whatsoever. I plan to get the three of us - Lissie, Joey, and myself - into counseling very soon.

Not only will I not allow Tim back to be Lissie and Joey’s parent, I also cannot be married to a man who abused my children. I don’t make this decision or this choice lightly, but indeed it is very black and white to me. My children must come first, most especially because of the situation as it is, and I will do everything in my power to protect them and to keep protecting them.

Look what this turned into! A lighthearted and directionless post became a tell-all. ;)