This hits the feels. I was 15 when my parents divorced. I was crushed. My younger sister however, was giddy. Not because she thought the divorce was cool, but because her best friend told her that after her parents divorced, she got 2 really amazing christmases with expensive gifts that tried to outshine the other parent. Oh, but not us… we were poor. Reality hit next year for her, when my mom couldn’t afford food, let alone gifts.
Wait until she's married and her spouse's parents are divorced too and now she has 5 or 6 Christmases to go to and she's completely burned out on the holiday she once loved.
That was me. Leave the house at 8 AM, get home after midnight, every place pressuring you to eat a full large meal and why you gotta leave soooo early.
Architect buddy of mine, very smart man both in IQ and EQ, handled this extraordinarily well with his young children.
"Now you have TWO families that love you very much. Just because mommy and I don't live together, that doesn't change anything about our love and ability to care for you. You will safe and loved no matter what."
Picking my kids up on the 26th. Ugh. 15-hour round trip, and again in a week. Worth it.
My step dad was great though. He was a batshit crazy and dumb hillbilly, but he loved us. My father disappeared after he and my mother divorced. My step dad was there after he and my mom divorced, until he died a few years ago. That man had troubles and more troubles, but he would have dropped anything to help me out to the best of his ability.
In defense of my father, my mom didn’t make it easy. At all. I don’t blame any of them though. They did the best they could with what they were equipped with.
Mom said it's all your fault too because you were a mistake and they don't love you anymore, I heard them fighting over who had to take you, dad said he would do it if he got the house and mom screamed "I would rather be homeless than have to keep her in my house."
Me too until reading the replies, I thought it was about Christmas being on different dates for Western (Protestant + Catholic) and Eastern Orthodox Christians.