Through the Eyes of a Child
My husband was in the city attending a poly event with his girlfriend. Knowing that my latest ex would be attending as well, I had asked his wife and his daughter over for dinner. I didn’t want to lose touch simply because he and I are not speaking. It wasn’t fair to the developing friendship between us or the children. I was explaining to my eight year old daughter the evening plans.
“Mom,” she asked, “he won’t be coming?” (referring, of course, to my ex)
“Nope,” I replied. “We are no longer dating. The only person that mom is seeing now is <insert friend’s name here>.”
“Oh.” She nodded. “Mom, do you like <insert friend’s name here>?”
“Yes, sweetie. I do.”
“Good!” she exclaimed before filling me in. Apparently there are two types of ‘like’. There is the ‘like’ that one has for a friend. And there is ‘like li-ke’, said with an intonation that is nearly impossible to capture in the written word. “I’m glad you don’t ‘like li-ke’ or love him,” she continued. “All your loves lately make you cry.”
/sigh. The kid does have a point. But that doesn’t mean I will give up looking.
- Posted in: poly parenting ♦ polyamory
