D6 first appointment with therapist- finally
Took D6 to see her new therapist today. The woman is great. It was an eye opening session, even for me.
Right off the bat she mentions AH's drinking. The therapist asked her if that was something she was worried about and then moved on, chatted it up with D6, built a rapport (D6 wanted me to stay so I did).
The therapist said to her after a bit, "if you had a magic wand what would you change at home". D6's reply was "i'd turn mommy into a chicken". The therapist seemed intrigued and i was tempted to point out that the girls are on a kick ever since they both studied chicks this spring about calling everyone chicken but i stayed quiet. So then the therapist said "okay, going with the animal theme, what animal would you assign to everyone in your family". D6 pipes up and says "D4 would be a hornet" (which prompted laughter from the therapist and I and D6 bc it's not altogether a bad animal to assign to D4 given her fiesty nature!). Therapist asked about me, D6 and Daddy. D6 said "daddy would be an elephant and mommy and me are bees".
The therapist then asked something about how the animals would be all together and D6 right away said "the hornet is loud and the elephant would crush and stomp on the bees".
I got quite a look at that point from the therapist and the message was pretty clear. The therapist asked me to let her be with D6 for a while and I went to the waiting room. I guess D6 was asked to draw a picture of her family and all she drew was AH. Not sure what to make of that but it all just is so sad for D6 and D4 (though D4 wasn't there).
Today sure validated my sense that the girls know precisely what their father is like and that while he may fool others, he sure isn't fooling his own kids. He tells me regularly and has for at least a year that the only reason the girls feel negatively toward him is bc I "poison" them against him. I think today showed pretty clearly that's not the case.
I can't even imagine what it must feel like to be 6 and see my father as someone who I imagine as capable of "stomping" on me... My poor kids.
Anyone on the fence about leaving ought to read my posts since last year at this time. Things spiral fast and the kids are the ones harmed the most.