Yes Mish, I make sure I turn the TV off (learned something from my M!), put my arms around her and wipe her tears. I share with her about my experiences with being lonely now and as a teenager. I tell her what an amazing kid she is and how proud I am of her. I suggested that she find a club that interests her, I suggested she try our teen Friday nights at my church (no go!) but mostly I just listen. That she can approach her Dad and share her innermost thoughts and fears is pretty awesome. Again, it's so hard to talk about being separated as a family especially when it's not what you wanted nor should it be necessary. I still don't bad mouth her mom or lay blame on her. I told D that we arent' the family we used to be but we do our best with what we have and I think we do a lot more things together than most families in our situation. D agreed. But, that said, it's sad. D also said "Daddy, I don't want you to be alone" and I said "Hey, I'm a big boy and it's up to me to take care of my lonliness, just like you have to do thinkgs to take care of yours, you aren't responsible for looking after Dad...or Mom , for that matter." I told her what I do to fend off lonliness mainly as a means of getting her to think through what she could do. We also talked about how others might look all together etc but underneath everybody has their issues. Anyway, we had a good talk and afterwards she hugged me and said "I feel better now...but I'm still not going to your church!"
