You're darn Skippy you will.....my same experience happened almost the same age as you. I bought her out of the home so in essence started paying for part of my home again. I rested on Joel 2:25, I will restore the years the locust has eaten and He has.
Yep I heard that one after I was dating my now wife......my answer: I forgive you but I would never begin to know how to trust you again, wish you the best.
Thank you Maina! She would have to try pretty hard to blow through all her money, she has a very good job. Although her rent payment for her new luxury apartment is $1800 a month! I think as her career progressed, she began to look down on me because I am just a blue-collar electrician. No worries. I have clawed my way back up from rock bottom, and am quite proud myself. I know what I bring to the table, and can honestly say I have let her go.
Bet she'd feel differently about that fancy new apartment without the work that some blue collar electricians did there...
Y'all might enjoy "Shopcraft as Soulcraft, an inquiry into the value of work" by Matthew Crawford. A philosopher/mechanic's wise (and sometimes funny) look at the challenges and pleasures of working with one's hands Called "the sleeper hit of the publishing season" (The Boston Globe), Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a "knowledge worker," based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.
There will be a huge shortage of tradesmen in the near future. The current generation has no interest on trying to do anything with their hands, my own son included. I try to get him to come out and help me with minor tasks, such as an oil change, for example..... no interest, whatsoever. I love him, though....He will find his way.
There already is in some places. I just seen a story on the Cleveland news recently where one of the local schools was looking for all the welding students they could find...said they had employers lined up waiting to hire them...and paying some darn good starting wages too!
Frank, master electrician start here 80 an hour (billed rate) and 40 to hire and college grads start at 20 to hire. Plumbers same as electrician, both need a certification, journeyman, with paid OJT, vs 100k in school debt. The abstract workers are going broke paying the blue collars. Told my nephews, you are going to work, you can chose to make money or have status. Sister is MD, when she got electrician bill, he makes what I do without 12 years school (debt), insurance and malpractice.
Wow! I got my masters license 9 years ago. I do all right, but I have never made anywhere near $80/ hour!
Oh that’s a familiar tale and it really lowered my opinion of her moral fiber. I’ve been blue collar and white and I’d much rather hang with the blue collar guys. Most white collar people don’t live in the real world that we all do, they live in their own little world that they pay dearly for. It’s a prison and they don’t even know it. It’s sad and the apathy it creates is the basis for what’s wrong with this country today.
I don’t have anything against white collar workers... we all have to find our best way to make a living. But when someone thinks they are better than me because they dont have to get dirty, well then, I take exception to that. I come home dirty most days, and I am proud of that.
F&B, you've got a good outlook on life, and you seem to be keeping all the drama in perspective. If that's the way she want's to live her life, so be it. Glad to see that you are keeping good moral compass on the situation, both for you and your children. Money can always be made, the lives you touch is priceless. During and after my divorce, I was quite bitter. That affected me, not her, so I had to get past that in order to live the life I wanted and deserved. As to the wood, I agree that $250 for all your time and energy spent to build up the woodpiles, it's wrong to have to pay, but small potatoes in the end. Keep on keeping on. BTW.. blue collar workers keep things working for everyone, I wish that more people realized that, perhaps honest to goodness work ethics would be valued again.
Thank you Chaz. I can honestly say I have never been through anything as hard as this, not even close. But once I made it to the point where I wanted to live again, I made up mu mind that I would not be bitter. I have lost every ounce of respect for her, though. How someone could walk away from a marriage and stable family for no good reason is something I will never understand as long as I live. I finally realized it was a waste of time to try to understand something that makes no sense, whatsoever.
The ONLY thing that has buckled my knees since my divorce was the death of my parents. You will obviously make it through this, and things take on a different perspective afterwards. You have the added stress of helping your kids through these times, we didn't have any children, so it was "easier"?? I wish you all the best, and it seems you've got a head start on the road to "sanity".
Well if she makes that much, I think you need some “maintenance” money to continue the life your accustomed to. If you made more you bet your hiney they would make you pay.
I declined spousal support AND child support in an attempt to start things out on the right foot and settle things amicably. I was “rewarded” a week later with an email stating that she would be sending me a bill every month for “ordinary child expenses”, that I was now FULLY responsible for, since I declined compensation for those expenses.... No good deed goes unpunished.
I'm no lawyer, so I don't know if you can "reverse" the decline of spousal support or not, but she surely is a petty person.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, Chaz. Our combined lawyer fees are $475/hr and in a pre trial hearing she wanted to argue about a $75 washing machine I sold on Craigslist in August.... she wants her $37.50.
