Ainsley - I can't comment on why you feel that guilt as it's a situation I've never been in. I came from parents who are still happily married and of course never had a child with my ex (thank god) so it's all foreign to me. I do know that I felt guilt walking away from my marriage even though my ex was mentally ill (from a work accident that lead to depression and excess alcohol & drug use, then ultimately mental illness). I somehow felt I should've been able to fix the situation - but I can look back on it now and see I could never have fixed it. I think we as women hold a lot of guilt for things we just can't influence and we'd be a lot better off if we could just put that guilt to the side. Well done Alistair. Keep up the good work for mum.

Tan - that must suck with your DP being away so much. Does he work in the mines? It's the only thing I can think of that would take him away for so long, but I guess there are other things. It sucks when exes change their minds like that. We have it all the time. She will tell us we can have her for school hols then she cracks it and tells us we can't. Then she'll change her mind and let us have her. Then she'll change the day or time of day she wants to pick her up. It's painful and we only live a couple of suburbs away. I can't imagine how difficult it is when there is distance involved. DF and I would love to sell up and buy elsewhere - we like the look of both Ballarat and Geelong but think the distance would cause issues with access so it's not likely to happen. Maybe when she's older we can consider it again.



Things are nice and calm in our household again. DF is having second thoughts about the OS holiday and also about shift work. Generally when he has doubts like that he doesn't go ahead. We will have to wait and see.

Regardless of what time Brock goes down at night (somewhere between 7.30 - 9.30) he is always waking up at 6.30. He's like a little alarm clock. It will be quite handy once I'm back at work. I start at 8.30 and don't need to leave til about 8.10 so it should give me enough time to get him sorted, me sorted, him dropped at day care and me on my way. Of course I'm presuming he'll still be doing this in Feb, and he may not.