[aruanan]

“The best thing that a kid can see in the parents is for a man, a father, on his knees,” says Father Calloway. “That is strength. When a man is on his knees, that is stability. When a kid sees that, it’s a confessional statement. It speaks volumes. And when they see a mom and dad being kind and loving to one another, that’s also important — showing kindness to each other.”

I know a woman who has 5 kids from 5 different guys. She said to one friend that she couldn't imagine how horrible it would be to be forced by marriage to stay with one man her whole life. With her a man's shelf life is about 3 years, then she starts looking for someone else to impregnate her. The 4 boys have lost father after father and have said that no one knows how horrible it is to lose one yet again. Yet the mother will declaim about how she has no man and has to be "mother/father" to the kids. She talks about how she has kept them all together and nothing would separate them from her; they would all be together in jail or in the morgue. She wakes them up with a slap and a curse. They eat if she's happened to have cooked. For her the kids are called "good" to the degree they don't bother her or cause her trouble and "bad" to the degree they do. She still holds it against two of them that they cried almost incessantly as infants. And she doesn't seem to be able to understand why they would rather be with any of their previous fathers than with her. To her that seems like ingratitude. After all, as she loudly yells at them any time she wants to silence any question or observation, she is "the one who borned them".

[Salvation]

What a sad story. The children, undoubtedly, have gone through the phases of grief each time.

Denial
Bargaining
Depression
Anger
Acceptance

and finally moving on.

Let’s just pray that when they move on they do not repeat their Mother’s behavior.

It would do well for her to be on her knees. Perhaps these children could set an example for HER!!!