Just found out she already filed

[ImprovedRomeo]

Thanks guys, you are all awesome! it's so nice to see all the support...

So the song is 'Not Afraid' by Eminem. I like a couple of his songs but not something I typically listen to.

In regard to the household stuff, thanks for all the great suggestions and I'll definitely keep them all in mind.

@OF, I thought I put on a hard shell and felt I was doing OK. When you say it doesn't look like it happened are you referring to how I acted when she was here going through the household stuff? If so, as I said I still don't know how else I should've acted.

I agree with you on the memories part but I just don't want her to ever think or say 'Dad you didn't even come to my b.day parties'. But to pretend in front of a dozen families that we're a family is just damn hard for someone like me who's not good at faking stuff. I can see me trying to keep my distance from STBXW and being there like one of the guests. DD was saying yesterday that she's going to have a big party for her b.day and all her friends will be there etc. Then later she asked me something and then said 'or I won't invite you to my party'...I thought to myself 'jeez now I'm a guest that gets invited to my own DD's b.day' of course, she said it in a funny/kid's way but that hurt.

@TH, you're right and yes I've decided to let her go. I don't think she's coming back and if she did I don't think I can trust her to not leave again in the future whenever the heck she feels like it. It's now about really acting n that decision and making it stick.

@figs, FM, CTH- all great suggestions, thank you!!

@wii, sorry you went through that...I'm glad I didn't have to separate a lot of things but I did do a few boxes full of stuff and then helped carry the heavy stuff to her car. I didn't want to but I didn't want her carrying that stuff as a common courtesy. It was a strange feeling but I'd done it once before too.