Lynnlee Rampton from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and her children's father endured years of legal battles
To anyone reading the text messages,
they look like the usual exchanges between two busy parents doing their
best to juggle the demands of work and looking after three young
children.
From what time to pick up which child from swimming to the whereabouts
of a lost piece of gym kit, the notes make up the normal minutiae of
family life.
Except that the messages between Lynlee Rampton and her children's father are the only way they ever communicate.
After years of legal battles,
Lynlee's hostility to her former husband, with whom she shares custody
of their two sons, aged 11 and nine, and their daughter, eight, is such
that she would rather deal with him by exchanging brief messages than
talk to him face-to-face.
At one point, their disagreements - over everything from how to treat
the children's nits to what should go in their packed lunches - got so
bad that a judge suggested the couple confine their dialogue to Twitter,
with 140 characters allowed per tweet, in order to stop it straying
into acrimony.
This disturbing scenario, which shows how ferociously bitter the
breakdown of a modern marriage can be, is only set to become more
frequent.
With nearly half of all babies born today due to live in broken homes by the time they are 16, it's increasingly common.
Britain has one of the highest rates of family breakdown in the world.
According to one report, the number of lone parent families is rising by
20,000 a year and is set to reach two million before 2015.
But is it possible to successfully raise a happy child you love with a man you never want to speak to again?
Lynlee, 40, who met her former husband - a doctor - at a hospital where
she worked as a speech therapist, agrees it's a challenge. Nowadays, the
only time she sees her ex face to face is at parent-teacher meetings.
'Even then we don't make eye contact and communicate only via the
teacher. The handovers, when the children go to stay with him, are done
by me dropping them off at school in the mornings and him picking them
up at the end of the day.'
It sounds clinical, but Lynlee says the situation is preferable to how
things were before she and her husband split after seven years of
marriage.
A hard-hitting new book, Raising The Kid You Love With The Ex You Hate,
tackles the issue of how best to bring up children after a once loving
relationship breaks down painfully.
The book's author, child psychologist Dr Edward Farber, says it's not
the split that damages children, but the acrimony that follows.
He says youngsters who witness their parents in long-running emotional wrangles can suffer trauma that lasts a lifetime.
Lynnlee on her wedding day to her now ex-husband, a doctor she met at the hospital in which she worked
When he started seeing the children of divorced parents, Dr Farber
assumed their problems would be mild compared with youngsters who had
suffered chronic illnesses, been sexually abused or whose parents had
died.
But his conclusion is just the opposite: 'The bottom line is that the
out-of-control battles that parents wage can leave deep scars on
children long after [the parents have] moved on.'
Among his patients have been children raised in domestic war zones in
which embittered mothers refer to their former husbands only as 'him' -
and pass on messages to their children such as: 'Your father rang to say
that you left your jacket at the house he shares with the whore.'
Nowadays,
the only time Lynlee sees her ex face to face is at parent-teacher
meetings. 'Even then we don't make eye contact and communicate only via
the teacher'
Dr Farber says warring couples must hide their mutual animosity from
their children at all costs - and treat each other like business
partners, stripping all emotion out of the relationship.
It's quite a break from the traditional notion of raising a child with
love. So, why does he think it's the only hope for today's broken
families? And why are marriages ending so badly?
Dr Farber says the main reason is that a generation ago, custody usually
went to one parent - usually the mother, who made all the decisions.
Now that couples expect equal access, there is more to fight about. Dr
Farber says: 'Obviously it's best for the child to have access to both
parents, but it means that every decision may have to be made by two
parents who hate each other.'
That's why he recommends a business model. 'Business partners don't have
to be friends,' says Dr Farber. 'But they know for their business to
succeed and to produce the best possible product - their children - they
must work together.'
Break down
One in three marriages is expected to end in divorce by its 20th year
While Lynlee is a supporter of this approach, other mothers find it
harder to put into action - especially if their marriage has been ripped
apart by infidelity. Office manager Karen Davies is the first to admit
how much she hated her former husband Steve when she discovered his
adultery. She says four years after their split she still finds it a
struggle to be civil to him, even though she recognises the effect the
acrimony has had on her daughter Bella, 11.
Karen, 41, who lives near Norwich, discovered that Steve was having an
affair after he was taken to hospital after a motorbike accident. It was
then that she discovered intimate pictures on his phone.
Despite a reconciliation while she nursed him back to health, a month
later she discovered he and his lover were secretly still in touch via a
clandestine mobile phone.
Karen said: 'That day I threw him out of the house. Then I simply put
all his possessions in the road and told him to take them away. As it
was happening, Bella, then six, sat at the bottom of the stairs, with
tears streaming down her face, saying: “Daddy, why don't you just say
sorry to Mummy?” But he walked away.'
It's a terrible image. But this was just the first poisonous scene Bella
was to witness as her parents' marriage exploded into vicious rows over
money and custody arrangements.
After he left, Steve, a retail manager, moved 150 miles away to be with
his new lover, and though he visits his daughter every two months, Karen
says Bella rarely hears from him between visits.
Karen said: 'Since our divorce, Bella has lost her spark because she has
lost her security. She has became withdrawn and her schoolwork has
suffered. She also became clingy and protective. Even now, she sleeps in
my bed and tells me all she wants is for me to be happy.'
Despite the fact that her child is clearly desperate for some
equilibrium at home, Karen says her divorce has proved such a bitter
experience that she struggles to keep a lid on her emotions.
'Bella is the real casualty. She is innocent, yet she has seen too much,
heard too much, for a child her age - but I blame my husband for
throwing everything away. It's hard to be civil to him for that reason.'
However, some women do manage to steer their family through the
aftermath of a break-up. Denise Barton, 43, believes it is possible to
raise a happy, secure child with an ex, but that it requires time,
patience and compromise.
Denise, a mother-of-one who has worked as a nanny for more than 20
years, has lived with families in which the parents were separating and
so has seen the damage done to children by witnessing family rows.
'If
warring adults don't learn to control their feelings, the damage can
last for decades - affecting your children as adults and even being
passed onto grandchildren'
Her experience meant that when her 11-year marriage broke down three
years ago after she developed ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), she set out
to find strategies to shield her nine-year-old son Jack from the
conflict.
But emotions can still run high with her ex, David, a 43-year-old
electrician, with whom she shares custody. Like Dr Farber, she believes
it's vital to take the emotion out of the situation, though her tactics
owe more to her experience in the nursery than running a business firm.
Every time she and her ex start straying into an argument, the couple
have developed a discreet signal that they make to each other as an
indication that one of them should leave the room.
Denise says: 'My son has already seen and heard things said that no
child should have to hear, so I watch for the triggers that might upset
me with my ex and walk away if I feel myself getting angry, so he
doesn't have to be exposed to any more.
'Of course, Jack would like us to get back together. But I have
explained that just like when children fall out in the playground,
sometimes his dad and I have trouble being nice to each other. So we
stay separate like children do if they can't get on - and he can relate
to that.
'When we row, we know our son does not eat or sleep as well. We've seen
the effects and we know we have to put our son first, ahead of our
feelings.'
Dr Farber agrees. And, if warring adults don't learn to control their
feelings, he says the damage can last for decades - affecting your
children as adults and even being passed onto grandchildren.
So next time you are tempted to phone your ex to shout at them about
their selfishness, Dr Farber says think again. 'If you don't learn to
get along, your failure will echo across the generations.'
It's a sentiment echoed by Denise. 'My ex and I may not be in love any
more, but we agree on how much we love our son - and that he has to come
first.'
dailymail.co.uk
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