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Nearly a year after my own DDay, my father sat my mother down and told her that although they'd been married nearly 30 years, he was no longer in love with her. That there was another woman, and there had been another woman on and off for the last 14 years.

I guess I'm just looking around to see if there's enough interest to start an I Can Relate thread. I'd really like to get other peoples' responses on this, and a gut-check for my own responses to my father.

So far, I've cut him off. This is apparently abhorrent to my siblings (there are five of us) and I'm getting a lot of flack from them for being so black and white about this. Apparently, I'm supposed to be on to the forgiving and forgetting part, even though my father has shown no remorse, and not followed any of the requests I made of him (such as counseling and no more favoritism). I'm having a hard time separating my behavior with my husband with the behavior I expect from my father, and I'd love some BTDT input, or even some I feel ya moments.

Haven't been there but my heart goes out to you.

We never found infidelity, but my mother abandoned my father after 30 years of marriage.

I am still working on it many years later.

Some of it is still coming to light for me and as I process memories and thoughts about it, makes me feel differently about her. I do know that she is a narcissistic person and nothing my father could have done would have kept her there. She never talked to him about the problems, she just bailed, as my x did as well.

It's my gut reaction that you should be entitled to your own opinions and your own process of dealing with this information.

For us kids it was terrible and I never really talked it over with either of them, which may have helped.

I can't relate to this but I can say that I agree with you 100%. I too would have cut him off!

I can't even stand to look at my cousin's less than remorseful WH...actually I don't, I turn give him the evil eye and turn away.

My heart goes out to your Mom...Hugs to her and to you.

I (thank God) can not relate - but I ache for you.

I think the worst thing about an A is denying the BS the right to make a decision about the M, about their lives, based on the truth. The WS takes what they want of the M (steals it through deceit) and then blows everything up and walks away. I so feel for your mom! ((1Bite2Shy)) This would totally change the way I'd have viewed my Dad.

Mine cheated on each other and divorced when I was a teenager. It's something you deal with in one way or another for the rest of your life. In my case, I've chosen to swallow the shit sandwich and put up with what they've done (including both marrying their OPs) in order to have a relationship with both of them.

There is a thread in I Can Relate on this. It's usually on page 3-4.

My mom cheated on my dad from when I was 11 until they divorced when I was 19. Her PA with MOM lasted over 30 years.

I'm sorry! As you can tell from my username I totally relate to this. I first joined after finding out about my father's continued infidelity. Then I ran smack dab into my own with my Wh. Take it from someone who's relationship with my father is complicated, do what is best for you. Don't let anyone guilt you into rug sweeping. I regret so much letting everyone else talk me out of my feelings. I still struggle with it daily. (((1 bite))) hang in there and I'm so sorry for your mother. I just don't understand still how people can live with themselves.

I have MAJOR residual hang ups resulting from my father's primary infidelity followed by my mother's revenge infidelity.

Like, for example, they got a divorce and my dad went and got himself a new family.

New wife. New daughter. New dogs.

Twenty years later, and he's grand-parented his new daughter's 2 kids, but hardly knows my 3 or my brother's 3.

We've been kicked to the curb.

Oh, yah.

I. CAN. RELATE!

My father divorced my mother after more than 37 years to be with his LTA OW. Mom estimates it lasted no less than 15 years. I thought it was going to kill her. OW is a low class yuck. I have a very minimal relationship with my dad, but have not completely cut him off. More the opposite really. I look a lot like my mother, and OW hated me from the start and my dad let her drive a wedge. Whatever. I moved far away and learned to let go many years ago.

My father cheated on my mother when I was 8 or 9 and he left her for the other woman. He married her and they had a daughter, who is every bit a sister to me as my brother is.

My mother is not the greatest mother in the world (quite the opposite) and she always tried to drive a wedge between me and my dad. I have a lot of his personality traits so mom & I didn't get along much and I am far from her favourite child...sad but true. I am lucky that I still have a great relationship with my dad as well as my step-mother and 1/2 sister. I guess I didn't realize all those years ago that my dad cheated on my mom so it never affected things much. Later when I got older, I did the math and figured things out for myself.

Living with the type of mother that I did, with all the mental and physical abuse I endured, I am just glad that my dad found happiness and has now been married to my step-mother for close to 30 years. I'm glad he didn't have to go through the shit my brother and I did.

So I my parents fought quite a bit and apparently my dad cheated on my mom when I was young. It turned out after my mom had me.. My father was previously marriage.. I only met some of my half brothers and sister a couple of times and they really resented us..So fast forward 8 Yrs ago found out after my dad passed away that my mom was the OW. My dad hadn't been legally separated.. This was back in a Catholic country divorce wasn't allowed yet. But I wondered why my mom kept asking me if she was ok with this church document I got (I was the estate executrix) explain how she(my mom) broke up their marriage...when I found out about my H affair my relationship changed with my mother.. Here this person that kept telling me how I should behave... And how she became friends with the woman who cheated with my dad. I could never get that.. I guess because she was like her too. Anyway I am angry that my mom could have such morals I have slowly detached from her. I have not told her about husbands affair but I think she found out snopped around my house. She has the key so she would come by to see granddaughter. But DD is driving now so she doesn't come by as often. I know it's bad I shouldn't hold a grudge but I can't help it. My h is not who I thought he was and neither is my mom.. She is a person that was capable of being the ow. Now I understand why she wouldn't let the priest marry them. She knew what she had done was wrong but she always said it was a different reason.
Anyway. Sorry you find yourself in this place. Good luck.

I am not dealing with infidelity in my parent's marriage, but my sister's. My BIL cheated on my sister with a fellow teacher. And honestly, I don't see him as remorseful at all. He actually makes my skin crawl! Despite my sister trying to hang onto whatever M they have left, which from what I have seen is none, I want nothing to do with him. My beautiful sister is starving herself to death in denial of his infidelity. She is 5'7" and now a size 2 literally hangs off of her. She was never overweight to begin with, just naturally curvy. Now she's almost skin and bones. She refuses to or can't seem to understand that this has nothing to do with how she may or may not look. She was/still is beautiful enough to be a model and he still cheated on her. Because he's broken! Just looking at her makes me want to murder his cheating ass!

Anyway, I would be beyond devastated to learn one if my parents had cheated on the other. Probably more so than the infidelity in my own M. The thought of what my own children have had to deal with in their young lives makes me sick.

3boys

[This message edited by 3boys at 6:50 AM, November 5th (Tuesday)]

Thank you for your stories everyone.

Purplejack - I looked in I can Relate, but didn't see anything. I'll try again. Thanks!

It's made more (or less depending on how you look at it...) difficult with the fact that my father has always blatantly showed favoritism toward my younger sister. I am the oldest and she was always the golden child, while I was always the scapegoat. It's been this way for as long as I can remember. I've put up with it because my parents had what appeared to be an amazingly happy marriage (high school sweethearts who still cuddled and held hands and did all the cutesy stuff after 20+ years of marriage) and I thought my mother wasn't the instigator.
Turns out, my dad IS the jerk, but my mom is the ultimate rugsweeper.

h0peless - I think I'm beyond putting up with their antics. I've put up with my father-in-law's antics for far too long and finally got to the point of cutting him out. If I'm not going to take his bs, I'm certainly not going to take it from my own father. I can totally see why you would though. As it stands right now, my children will never have a relationship with either of their grandfathers and that breaks my heart.

childofcheater - Thank you. My father is currently living with the OW who moved here from some state in the midwest leaving her two children behind with a stepfather. I don't get either of them. They were both willing to give up their OWN CHILDREN for each other. Who does that?! What kind of mother walks away from her babies for a married man? And what kind of man expects a woman to do that? Ugh.

kickboxer - My sister's son, and my other sister's daughter have a relationship with my father. Right after my father moved out, my son had his first birthday. My father didn't even bother to send a "Happy Birthday!" on Facebook. But by darnit, he showed up to my nephew's second birthday party a month later with his arms full of gifts, OW in tow. Well, so I'm told. I left when I heard he was coming over. Children's birthday parties are not good places for fistfights.

TripleTrouble - I hope I can eventually let go. I know my father has no interest in me, as I'm the "difficult" child anyway. It still hurts.

deepbluesky - I have a hard time with your story. It sounds like you definitely got the short end of the stick on parental units. I'm sorry.

Holy cow Dreamland. I am so sorry. That had to be a huge revelation for you.

3boys - I am grateful that my boys are much too young to understand much of what is going on. They're too young to remember when my oldest used to follow "Ponpa" around the house and watch him so very closely. He hasn't mentioned him in at least 6 months, and it makes me so sad to know they'll never have an awesome grandfather when I was fortunate enough to have two, as did my husband.

My dad cheated on my mother and I was the one who caught him at a pay phone (oh how harder it was to cheat before cell phones). I confronted, he lied but mom heard our talk from another room and they D soon after

I hate to say it but the impact of my father's A did not hit me until WW's A. Wish he was still alive so I could express my disappointment with him. We are trying to R so my mom does not know. But oh how I wish I could ask her how she managed to keep it together for my and her other 3 kids from another M.

My dad was a cheater. I grew up believing all men cheat. I thought I would divorce WHEN it happened to me. I did divorce once. (2 weeks)Not sure of this second marriage. (30 yrs) Since, its my last, I am in no hurry. I do however, actually feel panic, to think how this will effect my grown children in their lives. It stinks. They really do live what they see, not what they hear. But I keep teaching, hoping. I can see they would each be the BS.