I had a thread a couple months ago about my daughter’s father’s lack of involvement and how I should handle that. I just wanted to give a quick update, in case anyone was wondering.
I had tried to contact him several times and it seemingly did no good. I encouraged my daughter to contact him but she wasn’t interested.
Well, I have good news! For Father’s Day, I made her text him (well, I made her contact him in some way, and she chose texting). He didn’t say too much, but a few days later he sent her a very nice email and told her he has a car again now and is really looking forward to spending a lot of time with her again (he also said he needs her help coming up with a good name for his car, because she’s known for naming everything ).
My daughter has been all nonchalant about her dad lately, probably as a defense mechanism since he hasn’t been around much, but she’s so happy with all of this and I’m so happy for her.
Awww! I’m so glad! I don’t think I commented in the earlier thread but I did read it, and I’m really happy things are looking so good. You’re probably going to have to keep up with the gentle encouragement for a while at least, until keeping in contact becomes the “new normal” for both of them.
Just make sure she doesn’t get her hopes up. He’s failed her before… this may just be a phase for him. And if she gets her hopes up, it’ll just crush her more.
Yeah, I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure regular contact becomes more of a habit for them both now.
He was around a lot for 5+ years though…hopefully he will keep it up now! But yeah, it is a concern and that’s what I’ve been trying to balance for the last few years. I know he wants to be there for her though, so if I have to coddle him or whatever, I will. I probably should have done that all along, but…I didn’t.
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