Page 166 - Creeative Thinking

When I was growing up, my mother was also a single mom to my brother and me, but she
chose to work outside the home during our younger years. Though I know my mom did

the absolute best she could with the resources she had, I feel that even the best day care
centres or the most qualified nannies in the world can never replace a parent when it
comes to child-care, nurturing, and love. While my kids were in school, I used my "parent"
time to put together a book that I have been working on for quite some time.

Although I was only 31 years old at the time of writing this book, I have a tremendous
amount of personal experience on the topic in which I chose to write. Not only am I a
single parent, but also I am an adult child of an alcoholic as well as a child of divorce.
Although my husband and I have been separated for many many years, I am sill in the
process of healing from the abusive man to whom I was married.

Unfortunately, the man I chose to marry and have children with turned out to be very
much like my father was when I was a toddler. Although my Dad has been sober for 40
years and is no longer a violent man, they were both alcoholics who were emotionally,
verbally, as well as physically abusive. My husband however has taken things a step or
two further than my dad by being sexually abusive, at times, as well and having drug
problems in addition to being an alcoholic.

While my father has been in Alcoholics Anonymous for almost as long as I have been alive,
my ex-husband is still in denial of his problems and consequently refuses to get any
professional help. My children have not seen their dad at all since he viciously stabbed

and nearly killed a friend of mine two years ago in a fit of jealousy and rage.

Luckily for my friend, the knife lodged in one of his ribs and narrowly missed his lung. Had
the knife penetrated only one quarter of an inch lower, my friend might not be alive
today. As you have probably deduced from this account, my ex-husband suffers from
several antisocial mental disorders as well. One of these, I suspect is paranoid
schizophrenia.

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