You don't maintain an R to start with. For me, after the custody battle (and believe me, that was HELL) I basically went 'dark' for a year, no contact, no phone calls, no msn, no nothing.
I took my business back from him so I did not have any financial issues, although it was tough when he first left as he stopped paying his wages into our account but once I'd readjusted I was okay.
After the year, I think he just realised 'OMG, she really has gone' because before that I had threatened to just cut off if he didn't treat me right and so he was interested again.
The year gave me space to try to come to term's with what happened and it also made me realise that giving up on the M made me feel far worse than DB'ing does.
