Sunday Scribblings ---- Second Chance

Last night my son saw my ex, a woman whom he calls mommy. He loves her but she doesn't live with us anymore and so he misses her as well. He came back home after the visit and supper with her and her new girlfriend, and he told me that he wishes Mommy would just come home.

So I gently explained, as I have done on many occasions, that Mommy doesn't want to live in our home anymore. And I say that it wasn't his fault that she left and I remind him that she still loves him very much.

And I can tell that my answers and explanations fall short of the mark. But I don't know what else to do or to say. I feel our failure to make the relationship work most acutely at these moments, when I am trying to explain the unthinkable to the little boy who must live with it.

So if I had just one second chance, I'd make sure that his family stayed together. It seems like such a simple wish, but it isn't simple at all. And I fear that it will complicate my life --- and his --- forever.