Laying it on the line

A confrontational letter I wrote addressed to my father. Contemplating whether to show it to him or not.

Dear Dad ~

I can't pretend I don't know what's going on anymore. Through everything I've heard I have tried my absolute hardest to remain as neutral as possible. But at this point I have to confront you. Honestly, I'm afraid for my future.

And

My main fear is child support. Do you have some sort of paranoia that Mom will take the child support money into her own possession? I don't think you quite understand how selfless a mother becomes when it comes to providing for her children. Taking 50% custody in order to make sure she isn't paying for things of her own with that money is, in my opinion, showing an unnecessary and begrudging lack of trust. I don't know if you realize just how little the three of us would be living on compared to now - it's a bare minimum. And the money you'll be raking in - what exactly do you plan to do with that all on your own? Please don't leave C and I high and dry just because of your own personal issues between you and Mom.

I wish I could tell you this all in person, but unfortunately that just won't work. I know you would interrupt me saying that I'm completely off, that I'm hearing some kind of twisted version of the story, and somehow I'll end up being wrong. I won't be able to get my point across, and since email has pretty much been the gist of all forms of communication between us in the past six months, I figured this would do just fine. Please don't forget that I love you and I'm only opposing you because my future is more dependent on your choices than you may realize.

Love,

H

PS: Please don't make me go on this catamaran trip with the cousins. I don't know what made you think I would feel OK about going after you spent twenty minutes spilling to me about all the different ways life with them is chaotic and how much disrespect they show toward others. They never paid attention to us anyway, and even you can't deny that. I'm sure you have memory of the Christmas we spent up there in 2010.