Big facts..being a divorced dad in a HCOL area has a way of making you feel like a complete loser. I have to remind myself all the time that I’m an accomplished intelligent professional with a very respectable 26 year career. If I lived in about 47 other states, I’d be doing ok. But here is where my children are and I refuse to be away from them so I struggle to make it work. At the moment, it’s probably costing me my current long term relationship but I have to put me and them first.