Why can't we just be normal?

A broken marriage and separation I guess is never a pleasant experience. It's unfamiliar territory for me as it's my first experience and hopefully the last one too. It makes it a hundred times harder when an innocent child is caught in the middle of it which is one of the reasons I was never in favour of giving up on our marriage and trying to fight for saving and repairing a broken marriage for a long time. But I suppose there comes a time where one has to accept a point of no return and try and be the best ex-partner possible. After all, one has to think of the impact the separation has on the child. When children aren't involved, you can just move on, close the chapter and start a new life. It's not so easy when there's children involved however.

Since the day we separated, I've been in favour of us remaining friends and being as normal to each other as possible. I was fortunate not to grow up in a split family situation but I can only imagine how difficult it must be. I remember my mum and dad argue though and it was the hardest thing to endure ever. I hated it! I can only imagine how Jessie's little heart must feel hearing or even knowing her mummy and daddy arguing and fighting. We had enough of that living together and there's no reason that should continue. I've been begging for us to be friends and to be normal so that Jessie can have both her parents at her school events, birthday parties, sport, graduation and even her wedding. Unfortunately I'm just fighting a lost cause every time I ask. When I do, I just get abused... How sad!

Surely it's common sense to put your own selfish feelings aside and be the best example to your child as possible! I'm by no means portraying myself as anything near the perfect parent or indeed person, but one thing I know for sure, my intentions are always to be a good and nice person. Putting our own feelings first and continuing the war is absolutely no way to set an example to a child and the damage may not be visible yet, but I fear, unless things change very quickly, the impact may still have a very long term effect. I pray every day that it will never happen but I do know we as parents are behind the steering wheel and I'm struggling to come to terms with and understand why we cannot all just be normal and try and be friends.