Yes. It took me a while to accept and is a hard pill to swallow. I thought it would never happen to us. He is not completely absent, but is a ghost most days of the week. He sees her on most weekends but when he does, he shills her off with other people or sticks her in front of the TV. So it's just me being the responsible one Sunday-Friday. It's difficult as I have a demanding job and a house to maintain. Still, I feel incredibly blessed and the hardship is worth it. I feel like I have a second chance at life. While my daughter may not have a consistent and involved father figure, she has a mother figure who she can look up to. And I don't think she had that when we were married. I'm so much healthier, stronger, grounded, and happy now. She even said to me "our house is peaceful". She'll never see her mother asking about the other woman, or sobbing over feeling unloved, or scrubbing the toilet while her father sits and scrolls on his phone for hours.

Will she have emotional wounds because of his lack of involvement? Absolutely. But we as parents are capable and are equipped with more resources than ever to guide them through that and come out as whole human beings with some resilience under their belts.

None of us emerges from childhood unscathed. Your children will either experience a divorce or they will experience their parents having an unhappy marriage. We all need to choose which example we would rather give them and what consequences we are prepared to endure. I chose to knuckle down and help my daughter deal with her father as a capable and strong mother, rather than continue to die inside. But only you can decide what's best for you. You have internet strangers in your corner, regardless.