After my mum’s affair

When my parents split up it felt like the end of the world to me and that nothing would ever be the same again. I was right in thinking it would not be the same but little did I know that I would be happier now than I ever was when they were together.

 

I thought I had a perfect family. I had a sister who was two years older than me that I always looked up to, we went on holiday every year together....in my eyes everything was okay. But when I was 12 my dad found out that my mum had been having an affair with another man. When I found out I was heartbroken and couldn't believe what had happened.

 

That night, my mum left and decided to move in with her other man and I sat and talked to my dad all night about what had happened. A few weeks later my sister decided that she wanted to live with our mum so she left me and my dad.

 

It was strange to begin with living with my dad, I'd never had that much to do with him before. But we both knew that if we were going to get through this hard time we had to do it together. Neither one of us had ever done a weekly food shop before or bought school clothes for me etc. so for the first year everything was a huge adventure!!

 

Until my mum left I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or who I was as a person but given the freedom and support from my dad within six months I was well on my way to becoming the person I wanted to be.  By the time the divorce had all gone through me and my dad gave my mum her cats and went to the rescue home to get a dog....we both fell in love with the craziest, happiest dog there and took her home a week later.

 

Almost five years later I still live with my dad and my dog! I began my dream of riding racehorses and would not have been able to become the person I am today if my parents hadn't split up.

Photo: Toby Bradbury. Creative Commons.