Shannon — Thank you for sharing this. I’m sure whenever you choose to tell your daughter the whole truth, you will do it in such a way she’ll know, as I’m sure she does now, how loved she is.

My husband and I keep a three-ring-binder for his 8 year old daughter. In it, is everything. All the court documents, emails, text messages, everything that’s gone on since her mother and her father stopped being together. It will never be appropriate for her to see until she’s an adult. But we want her to know the truth of how things really were, when she is an adult and capable of handling it.

She’s told so many lies and half truths now, from the other side. But we don’t believe in retaliating or disparaging her mother or that family. She’s a child, it’s not fair to her.

One day, she’ll know everything and be able to make her own decisions.

Your daughter, whether she realizes it or not, knows who is there for her, who takes care of her, and who raises her. There will be days she hates this, they all do. But the days she appreciates this will shine all the brighter.

Much love. You are doing amazing at the hardest job on the planet. ❤