Dear Prudence,
I’m a married single mom to two young boys. I am the breadwinner and primary parent while my husband works part-time. He’s a wonderful father (present, engaged, fun but firm) but a crappy husband (my needs are dead last every single time). We’ve been together a long time and as I look back on our relationship, I see all of the red flags I ignored, mainly due to low self-esteem issues and being afraid of being alone. I’m in therapy (solo, my husband refuses to go) trying to reconcile the anger I have at myself for not leaving the relationship early, at him for being such a hunk of junk to me, and the idea that I wouldn’t have my boys if I had left early on. I’m really struggling and my marriage is in rough shape. Due to financial reasons, we can barely afford my therapy, let alone a divorce. The idea of not being with my children every day is gutting. Finding time for myself is nearly impossible and I have zero privacy. I feel like a zombie most days and putting one foot in front of the other takes monumental effort. How do I survive this?