Dear Carolyn: My husband is having an affair and plans to leave me for his affair partner. She is a single mother with a child in the same classroom as our son. The kids are not friends, but they are friendly and bound to be in classes and activities together again. How do I handle this? Cheated On
With tremendous self-care to start since this sounds like slow torture, Im sorry.
Its possible, though, the seemingly worst element of the situation that you have to face everyone constantly through your son will prove to be the most useful. Anger is a natural and healthy response, but only if you dont allow it to linger. And while you might think the constant exposure to these two will keep stirring up the anger, the opposite can also be true if you let it be: that constant exposure will force you to let go of the anger, because intense feelings are just naturally hard to sustain. Familiarity gives you a chance to get bored with anger and dread, bored with yourself feeling angry and stressed, enough to make the changes you need to feel better. You wont be able to avoid your new reality, so take that as a chance to get used to it. Really fast.
Having kids involved, meanwhile, will force you to keep choosing your best behavior when youre tempted to give it your worst. Again, if you let it but I suspect you will, just given that youre mindful the two kids are friendly and are preparing for them to remain that way.
So thats how I suggest you handle it.
Push through the torture of the early days and let the whole thing get familiar, staying civil throughout for the kids. That will allow you to feel good about yourself, which is how youll find your way to feeling good again in general.
