and courage of your convictions is awesome. Your children are watching EVERYTHING you do and say. If you allow yourself to be mistreated your daughter will think it is normal. Kudos to you.

I REFUSED to let them think that women are to be treated the way I was treated. I want my boys to respect women and that was never going to happen had I stayed....

I'm sorry you're going through this right now, especially being pregnant. This should be one of the happiest times in your life.

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain."

Sometimes a good scare can straighten someone out. I would like that for you. I hope that talking, asking for outside help, and a little commitment will straighten things out for you.

I just wanted to put in my two cents about being in an unhealthy relationship though. For many years I was with a man who seemed from the outside to be pretty fantastic. Most would say so. In our home though it was a long painful journey into hell. The way he spoke to me, belittled me, made me feel terrible about myself and hopeless. It was my doctor, who not even knowing about my relationship, took me aside one day during an office visit and said that although she didn't know exactly what was going on, she said that I needed to leave the relationship I was in. Emotional abuse can be fatal. It slowly eats away at a person and they become physically ill. I guess she saw the growing signs in me.

I often thought, if I stayed in that relationship, and had a child, what a freak my poor little child would be, growing up watching me deteriorate and developing his/her own sense of self in an environment that didn't foster love and respect.

I hope your's isn't as bad as mine was. To me, it took many years to even realize it. Even though my entire family and every single friend and later, many acquaintances even commented. So. I just want you to know that I get that feeling of loneliness, that sense of desperation. You are not alone, there will always be support for you, even when you can think of no other options. I believe God does not abandon us and when you do what is right for you, everything will be okay, maybe not how you imagined but a-okay. I really wish I could wrap my arms around you because if you feel anything like I did, my heart is already falling apart for you.

Good luck. I don't pray a lot, but tonight I'll say one for you.

My sons witnessed me being verabally abused. I used to tell my ex I wish he would just hit me so everyone could see how beat I felt. I have actually been in fetal position on the floor after one of his beatings. My then 7 year old son developed several phobias and would not let me leave his sight unless he knew his dad was out of town, the psychologist(my son's) told me that my son could not accept behavior that I was accepting for myself. Way to make me feel 2 feet tall ,but she was right. My son's needed to know i would not live that way and that everyone has the right to set b oundaries which is why as long as my sons speak to me in civil resepctful tone they can express anything to me including how wrong they may think I ma or how angry they are, as long as they do it calmly and as I said respectfully
I hate that you are experiencing this while pregnant, you should be better looked after and unfortunately looks like you may respondsible for that yourself.

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