And don’t stop until the end, the King told Alice. Dictators, sigh…

My mother stole all she could from me. When one of my children told his teacher that his father had choked him… I called my mother in tears. I thought I had a mothers love and support for once…that lasted less than 24 hours.

It was quite a whirlwind as police, and CPS…were coming into the home and interrogating us. When I naively called my mother for support again, she started commanding me to say that my husband was wonderful, that he never hurt the children, and never hurt me…so she asked me to lie. She told me that no one would want me with three children, and that I would struggle and suffer significantly if I left.

When my ex husband was interviewed by the police (and charged with malicious punishment of a child…) he started acting erratically. He was pushing me away quite physically at times, and then in a childlike way, begging for my affection. When he asked what he could do, I said, “Call off my mom!!!” He agreed. I arranged an operation of sorts…a safety plan. I would ask him to go to a crisis center to get his neurotransmitters balanced, if not…a friend’s mother was to pick me and the children up to take us into hiding. When I compassionately encouraged him to please get himself balanced, He picked up the phone as if calling the crisis center. I rubbed his arm so proud of him as he said, “I need some help.” Then he hung up, looked me point blank and said, “That was your mother.” We went into hiding.