I didn't forget about abuse - that's why I put in this part:
Quote:
Now some marriages may be so awful that the kids are actually happier with their parents divorced;
I do think, though, that there's a difference between abuse, and a one-time incident of a mentally distraught spouse lashing out.
The way i read it, she asked him very specifically for one thing for Mother's Day. He didn't get that, and she felt unloved as a result. She went a little nutty with the pain of feeling rejected and lashed out at him. Not appropriate by ANY means, but that alone doesn't establish a pattern of abuse.
Now, if she threw boiling water on him or hit him with a frying pan and caused serious bodily injury - he should have filed a police report and gotten him AND the kids out of there. The other extreme is she just flailed and slapped him. Depending on where the truth lies along that spectrum, the answers are different.
And if she IS abusive, WHY would you contemplate leaving to find your own happiness and leave your KIDS with the destructive person????
I'm just saying, the kids need to be the number one priority, nOT the personal happiness of the parents. What's best for the kids obviously depends on the nature and extent of the abusive behavior.
