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Dad, Why Did You Abandon Me Like This?
Children Build Fortresses…
Yesterday, a woman sat in front of me…
The baby in her arms slept, unaware that their father — the same one who planned for their existence — had now blocked them on all social media and changed the locks on their house.
She couldn’t even take the cats.
How did we get here?
How do we still normalize this silent violence of leaving those we promised to love?
I met a woman yesterday, with a baby in her arms, sleeping on her brother’s couch because her partner of a decade decided that fatherhood was too real.
And you know what infuriates me?
The ease with which someone can simply disconnect, like canceling a Netflix subscription they’re no longer interested in.
Every abandoned child carries an invisible weight on their shoulders. I see it every day in my work — that look that ages decades in seconds when they talk about the parent who left.
They’re little adults disguised as children, always on alert, always trying to predict when the next adult will decide they’re not reason enough to stay.
They develop a frightening ability to read micro-expressions, interpret silences, anticipate…
