Looking for some perspective from other single dads who have been through something similar.
My ex and I were together for 11 years and we have a young son together. I’ll own my part in how things ended. For a lot of our relationship I wasn’t very affectionate and said things like I didn’t love her. There were ways I mistreated her and took the relationship for granted.
She also believes I cheated on her, which I genuinely never did. Since we broke up I have been with other women, which she knows about and has made comments about.
Our breakup got extremely messy. Attorneys, court, custody issues, resentment, all of it. At one point she moved about three hours away while our son remained primarily with me. Eventually she moved back and we were able to reach a permanent parenting agreement.
A big issue between us now is that she says i really, really hurt her. I never really apologized or acknowledged how much I hurt her until recently. Her family is all against me, and it sucks because I was the only one there for so many years . I understand that because there are things I absolutely could have handled differently, and I’ve told her that.
At the same time, I don't believe everything that went wrong was solely because of me. I’m pretty self-aware about my own faults, but she has her own issues too. She has had serious falling outs and problems with a lot of people in her life, not just me. That doesn't excuse anything I did, but after 11 years together, I don't think our relationship can accurately be summed up as one person hurting the other.
And despite everything, when things were good between us, they were genuinely great. The end was not.
She still regularly tells me how much I hurt her. My response has basically been that I can't change what already happened. All I can do is acknowledge where I went wrong, show that I care now, and see where things go, if anywhere.
That's where I'm torn.
Part of me thinks I should stop trying completely. Let the relationship stay dead, focus entirely on being good co-parents, and accept that maybe too much happened.
The other part of me thinks 11 years and a family are worth at least seeing whether something different could eventually grow out of all this. Not forcing reconciliation or pretending the past didn't happen, but actually showing through my actions that I care and that I'm not the same person I was toward the end of our relationship.
We both agree that our son comes first. We also both agree that, all else being equal, having two involved parents working together is better for him. I think there's still a lot of pride and resentment preventing us from figuring out whether there's anything between us beyond co-parenting, but obviously that's my interpretation and I could be completely wrong.
I also realize I'm asking this in a single dads group, so responses may naturally lean toward "move on and focus on your kid." I'm genuinely interested in hearing from people who have actually been through this, though.
If you were together that long, had a child together, the breakup became extremely ugly, but there was still some connection underneath all the resentment (which there may not be but I could be wrong), would you leave it alone and let whatever is left die, or would you continue showing through your actions that you care without actively pursuing her and just see what happens knowing when a good relationship in the same household is a good one, it helps the kid.