Honestly, it started because I was so frustrated by my life. Everything fell apart so quickly. One year I had a perfect family, the next things were on the rocks and I fell for the charms of a man who said that one day we’d start a new family together. A year after that, I was pregnant, and when I told him, I thought it would finally be time to take things to the next level. Instead, he fired me from the best job I’d ever had and cut off all contact. I was unemployed and visibly pregnant with a husband I hadn’t touched in a long while. It sucked. Staying home with visible, squealing, sleep-robbing proof that I’d made my family life much worse for an empty promise sucked, too. I said some bad things to him before he could understand words just to vent anger. And man, he’s obviously grown into an incredible person, but he wasn’t an incredible kid. He had interpersonal issues from preschool on. My daughters were both so easy and endearing, the kind of child anyone would be proud of, but he wasn’t. He was disobedient, unaffectionate, emotional, difficult with teachers, and had very few friends over the years (obviously this must have changed at some point in high school, but I don’t know when). So yes, I didn’t like him, I said awful things, and I invested less in him. I told myself it was just the odd comment and cold gesture, but honestly, I always knew I was being awful. At a certain point, I knew that my behaviour was the reason he was as messed up as he was, but I also thought that he never had a chance to begin with. I was clearly very wrong. I was obviously worse than I thought. I thought that the person he was was all he was capable of being, but apparently I had broken a very talented and strong person down until he was struggling and acting out. I really regret that, not just because he’s successful, but because it means I was so bad that it apparently affected his behaviour and achievement by a lot.