Woman Claims She 'Abandoned' Son, Met With Extreme Mixed Reactions

Parenting is difficult enough when two people get along. Co-parenting in more challenging circumstances — such as in the midst of divorce — takes things to another level. A woman claimed she "abandoned" her son and, while some slammed the woman's method, others supported her.

"I have a 4-year-old son with my ex-husband," the poster known as u/AbandonedShip45 wrote on Reddit. "We've been in the middle of divorce since our son was 1. My ex has made settling the divorce and deciding custody of our son hell for me, both financially and emotionally."

According to Legal Jobs, divorce in the U.S. happens every 36 seconds. That equates to around 2,400 divorces per day. The numbers increase with subsequent marriages and the typical duration of the court process can last months to years, depending on the circumstances.

The woman continued: "I finally reached my boiling point two months ago when I realized just how bad my finances are at the moment and the fact that I would need to stop the divorce and move to an even cheaper but dangerous area to just survive at this point. I don't want my son to have to live there too. So, I decided that the next time my ex was in the country, I would take my son and leave him with his dad since he wants custody so badly."

She explained that her ex-husband expected her to "collect" their son. When she didn't, he began texting and calling.

"I ignored him for over a week, until he started threatening to have someone come and find me," she said. "We had a conversation where my ex was asking me what type of mother just ups and abandons her child like I had done."

She told him she wouldn't come back, "because my ex was right, he had the money to give our son a better life so he had won. He asked me what he was supposed to tell our son and I told him he should tell him the truth, that his dad liked to bully people with his money and it made me have to go away."

The Reddit forum had a lot to say about the woman's choices.

"I am on the child's side," u/MaybeAWalrus said in the top comment with almost 13,000 upvotes. "This child did nothing to deserve being treated like a pawn in a custody battle between adults. This 4yo boys didn't deserve to spent a whole week not knowing if he was ever going to see his mom again. This is cruel. Period. This is what OP asked us to judge today, not the custody battle and divorce."

However, u/ChiquitaBananaKush had the second-most upvoted comment (7,000 upvotes) saying, "OP's in a financial and emotionally abusive relationship. What option does she have? It sucks for the kid, but she's poor and can't afford the cost for both her and the kid."

u/JoKing917 said, "Leaving a child with their parent is not abandonment. The father leaves the country and she also had the kid for weeks at a time, is that also abandonment. The father is draining her of money and is fighting for full custody, she gave it to him."

"You might have some defenders here who support your actions, but I'm concerned about the message you sent your son when you were not there to collect him when your ex attempted to drop him off," u/Historical_Concept_7 added.