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Old 03-16-2013, 07:44 PM
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LexieCat
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: South Jersey
Posts: 16,633
You sound emotionally on much more solid ground right now.

It sounds like he DOES care for you--at least the best way he can. He can't be there for you emotionally as you would like, and maybe that's part of why he has acted hostile at times.

During the time right after I told my first husband that I wanted a divorce, he was very angry and hurt. And I understand why he felt that way--he was never a "bad" husband, he was (and is) a good man--I simply wasn't emotionally "there" in the marriage anymore. Things were kind of tense around the house at times during the months we continued to live together for reasons of childcare. I was pretty distant with him, and in large part it was because I was afraid he would misinterpret too much friendliness as an indication I had changed my mind. I didn't want to give him false hope. When, several months after I finally moved out, he had sort of worked it though, we cautiously became friends again. But if he hadn't gotten past the stage of wanting/hoping we could be together, it would have been difficult for that to happen. Because I would have been afraid of hurting him more.

So maybe I am completely out in left field, but maybe that is what's going on with him a bit. Maybe he's afraid if he comforts you emotionally, you will wrongly hope that he will come back to you. And, maybe you would. But maybe he also feels that these kindnesses, these practical kinds of assistance, are the right thing to do. And, yes, they are things to be grateful for.

You DO deserve love and support, and sometimes we have to take them in forms that aren't necessarily what we would have ordered.
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