The question I now hate the most is “how many children do you have?” This question makes me cringe for obvious reasons. In the past I would proudly say I’m a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 1! Now, I hesitate to answer…it’s that I’m no longer proud, but because I often find myself telling “my story”.

For the first few months after Andrew left me, I would tell “my story” to whomever dared to ask the question, and unbeknownst to my poor victims, I would often leave them feeling uncomfortable and awkward.  The conversations typically ended in an unintentional abruptness clouded with an uneasy silence. But, I was like oh well…shouldn’t have asked if you didn’t want to know the answer.

I’ve sought advice from other mothers who are apart of this dreaded club. I wanted to know the proper way to respond to this question. One simply said she answers honestly, but leaves out the details. She pointed out to me, that everyone is not worthy of knowing the story, especially when you know their intentions are not of good will. Another mother explained that as private as we once were, before our stories became a headlines in the news.  We need to continue to walk in privacy.

I guess a public blog, posted on Facebook or Twitter is not exactly private, but neither is anything we do on the internet. So sharing a personal story is okay. You never know it may help someone who is going through the same thing!