update
My xAH went to jail Sunday night for hitting me. I have a restraining order - finally!!!!! - and will be doing everything under the sun to ensure I get a permanent one.
He hit me hard enough to make me fall as I was taking my kids and one of their friends and leaving the driveway of my house bc he showed up, had been drinking and told me I had no right to walk away from him.
I called the cops, huge scene ensued etc...
My neighbors (the parents of my girls friend) instead of being alarmed/supportive/concerned etc... have since texted me telling me to stay away from them and that the girls and their daughter can not play.
The husband (who was my ex's drinking buddy and who has broken his wife's jaw with his own abuse) came to my HOUSE Sun night and layed into me verbally telling me I need to keep my business with my ex private and involving the police was BS (his words) and that he feels bad for my kids and my ex and that if I hadn't been trying to provoke my ex he'd have had no reason to get mad.
Yup. True story.
Right now I am a mess of emotions. My kids want to know why their 5 yr old friend next door won't say hello (our houses are about 20 ft apart and yesterday after school was torture as there is no way to NOT see the kids next door-- so my girls shouted as they always do "Hi X" and she turned her head and ran and then the girls asked me repeatedly for the next hour why they can't go play over there or say hi etc...
My neighbor's wife was someone I THOUGHT was a friend. It is just another example of the ways in which my xAH has managed to convince others that somehow I am the problem when he abuses me.
I have lost so so many friends because of him and I know, I know, they are not real friends if they act this way...
It makes it hurt only bc my kids have now had two sets of GOOD friends (the kids of my friends) ripped from their lives bc of xAH's stunts...
Seeing the girls hurting and asking for play dates and not understanding how one day they have a friend and the next they don't is just really sad...
I feel a huge sense of relief knowing xAH can't be around for a good long while-- now it's the uncertainty of wondering how to make things be okay for my kids who are old enough to be hurt by the sudden loss of friends-- that I have NO idea what to do with....