28/04/2026
You were never meant to carry this kind of contradiction.
To “co-parent” with someone who created life with you, and then turned around and made that very role heavier, lonelier, and more painful than it ever needed to be.
Who actually robbed you of the joy and peace that parenthood should’ve been, and could’ve been, had you had a supportive partner and co-parent and not the active counter parent you had, and have.
The expectation that you should just “understand,” “be the bigger person,” or “forgive and move on” ignores a very real truth:
You’re not dealing with conflict.
You’re dealing with intentional, strategic and relentless harm.
And there is a difference.
Being a protective parent often means holding boundaries that other people don’t understand.
It means choosing your child’s emotional safety over keeping the peace.
It means accepting that forgiveness is personal, not performative.
You don’t owe access to someone who created damage.
You don’t owe silence to make others comfortable.
And you don’t have to minimize what you’ve lived through just to fit someone else’s narrative.
You are allowed to be both:
A parent who loves deeply and a person who refuses to tolerate harm.
If this resonates, you’re not alone and you don’t have to navigate this dynamic without support.
✨ Join The Collective, where protective parents learn how to stay grounded, empowered, and clear, even in the most difficult of “co-parenting” dynamics, which is really just post separation abuse under the guise of co-parenting.
