re: NM

OP, I’m not a person that throws Bible quotes around as advice. That’s just not me. However, my dad is and he told me this and it made a lot of sense.

Proverbs 21:9
It is better to live in a corner of a roof
Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Proverbs 21:19 King James Version
It is better to dwell in the wilderness, Than with a contentious and an angry woman.

The fact that you would even consider living 16 miserable years to divorce a woman and even have money on your mind is just insane to me. If you honestly can’t live with the woman, exhausted all possible avenues to rekindle the relationship, then you would be doing your child a favor not being raised in a home of dysfunction and no joy. Money isn’t everything.

I struggled with the same dilemma once. I opted to get out. It was the best move I could have ever made. I had joint custody, had my kids every other week, and my ex-wife and I coparented very well.

I had a close friend stay in a marriage over 25 years until the youngest kid graduated high school. Now he’s 55, spent half of his life miserable, and for what? His kids recently told me while on a hunting trip they wished they would have divorced when they were young than to live in a house with two miserable parents.