{"id":1194,"date":"2024-11-26T04:17:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T04:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2024-11-26T04:17:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T04:17:06","slug":"i-have-to-raise-someone-elses-child-while-her-mom-is-having-fun-at-parties-story-of-the-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/archives\/1194","title":{"rendered":"I Have to Raise Someone Else\u2019s Child While Her Mom Is Having Fun at Parties \u2013 Story of the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I fell in love with a pregnant woman and promised to help her raise the baby, but she decided to have fun and avoid her responsibilities. She abandoned me only to return years later to do something unspeakable.\n
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I met Molly at college. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, but she never gave me the time of day. Molly would often hang out with the most popular men, usually on the school\u2019s football team, but we became close friends.\n\n

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She was cheerful and a great student. It was just amazing to have a friend like that, even if my feelings would always be unrequited. Eventually, she started dating Tanner, the captain of the team. He wasn\u2019t a typical mean jock, but I always thought she could do better.\n\n

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\"Molly\n\n

Molly didn\u2019t know she was pregnant.\n\n\n

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A few months afterward, Molly came to my house crying. Tanner had dumped her and started dating another girl almost immediately. I comforted her as best I could, but she had really loved him. About a month after that, she discovered something life-changing.\n\n

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\u201cMark, I\u2019m pregnant,\u201d she told me.\n\n

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\u201cWhat?\u201d I exhaled. I couldn\u2019t believe it. \u201cDid you tell Tanner already?\u201d\n\n

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\u201cYes. He doesn\u2019t want anything to do with the baby. He told me to get rid of it because he\u2019s not going to be a father now,\u201d Molly replied.\n\n

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\"Molly\n\n

Molly discovered she was pregnant.\n\n\n

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\u201cWhat an idiot! I can\u2019t believe he would evade his responsibilities like that! What are you going to do?\u201d I questioned.\n\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t want to get rid of it, but I\u2019m in college. I can\u2019t be a single mom. My parents are going to kill me,\u201d she cried.\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll step up. We can get married, and I\u2019ll help you raise the baby. You won\u2019t be alone,\u201d I suggested without thinking about it twice.\n\n

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\u201cI can\u2019t ask you to do that. I\u2019m sorry, Mark. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever feel that way about you,\u201d Molly said apologetically.\n\n

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\"I\n\n

I stepped up.\n\n\n

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\u201cDon\u2019t worry. It\u2019s not about that. We\u2019ll get married so that no one will look down on you, and you won\u2019t be a single mother,\u201d I continued. It sounded crazy even to me, but I couldn\u2019t let Molly go through this alone.\n\n

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\u201cAre you sure? That\u2019s a lot to ask of a friend,\u201d Molly whispered, still hesitant about this insane idea. I assured her I was serious, and we went down to the courthouse later that week. Two of our friends served as witnesses, and it was a short affair.\n\n

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I helped Molly get through this pregnancy as best I could. It was difficult as we were both college students, but we would make it work together. I grew more excited every day, thinking of becoming a father.\n\n

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\"I\n\n

I adored Amelia.\n\n\n

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But Molly was not that enthusiastic. I could tell that she missed being able to go out with her friends and enjoying regular college life. But as a mother, she had to sacrifice a lot. Eventually, Amelia was born, and she was the most beautiful baby in the world.\n\n

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I adored her immediately and became her dad. Molly loved Amelia as well and settled into being a mother better than I expected. We became a wonderful little family, and no one suspected that Amelia was not mine because she looked exactly like her mother.\n\n

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But Molly grew less and less excited. When Amelia was five years old, Molly broke down after putting her to bed. \u201cI can\u2019t do this anymore. I lost everything!\u201d she cried.\n\n

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\"Molly\n\n

Molly packed her bags and left.\n\n\n

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\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d I asked her.\n\n

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\u201cI lost my entire youth. I shouldn\u2019t have had a kid at all!\u201d Molly continued.\n\n

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\u201cMolly, please. Amelia might hear you. She\u2019s in the next room!\u201d I said, raising my voice only a bit.\n\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t care. I want out of this. I\u2019m filing for divorce, and I don\u2019t want to see any of you again,\u201d she said, shocking me to my core. I asked her to stop and think about this, but Molly had already packed her bags and left us forever.\n\n

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\"Amelia\n\n

Amelia missed her mother.\n\n\n

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I went to Amelia\u2019s room only to discover that our daughter had heard the entire commotion. \u201cMommy left?\u201d she cried.\n\n

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\u201cBaby, your mother is going through something right now and needs some time away. She\u2019ll be back soon,\u201d I assured her.\n\n

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Unfortunately, Molly did not return, and I became a single father. It was harder than I ever expected, and Amelia would cry almost every single night for a year afterward. But soon enough, we both got used to being on our own. My daughter was the light of my life, and I would do anything to get us through.\n\n

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I did my best raising Amelia as a single father.\n\n\n

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Molly did not call once but would update her social media often. She had the college life she had missed all this time. It was one party after another with her old college sorority friends. I felt awful seeing those pictures.\n\n

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How could she abandon her child to go out and have fun? It was unforgivable. Several years after her abandonment, I saw that she and Tanner had gotten back together, which only hurt worse. This was the guy who dumped her at her most vulnerable and didn\u2019t want to step up for his baby.\n\n

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I couldn\u2019t do anything about it except move on, but Molly decided to come back into our lives just when we were doing so well. \u201cWhat do you mean you want Amelia back?\u201d I asked when Molly showed up at my house unexpectedly.\n\n

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\"Molly\n\n

Molly returned and threatened to take me to court.\n\n\n

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\u201cMolly is my daughter, and I want her to live with me. Tanner is finally ready to meet her. She\u2019s her father,\u201d she said nonchalantly.\n\n

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\u201cTanner is not her father. I\u2019m her father. I raised her all these years, especially when you abandoned her,\u201d I said with disdain in my voice.\n\n

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\u201cMark, don\u2019t do this. I will take you to court for custody if I have to. That\u2019s my child. Tanner and I are engaged. She is going to be so happy with her real family at last,\u201d Molly continued.\n\n

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\"We\n\n

We went to trial.\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019ll see you in court then,\u201d I replied and threw Molly out of my house. Amelia was almost a teenager by then and saw how worried I was. My lawyers advised me to settle things out of court because most judges side with the mother.\n\n

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But how could a judge side with Molly after her abandonment? My name was on Amelia\u2019s birth certificate, and I saw her grow up. I was her only father. Molly\u2019s lawyers were fierce, and our battle was harsh. But Amelia\u2019s testimony sealed the deal.\n\n

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\u201cI only have one father,\u201d she said, pointing at me. \u201cMy mother left many years ago after saying she regretted me. I don\u2019t want to live with her.\u201d\n\n

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\"Nothing\n\n

Nothing would ever separate my daughter and I.\n\n\n

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Luckily, the judge listened to my little girl, although my lawyers didn\u2019t think it would happen. He gave me full custody, while Molly got visitation on the weekends. I encouraged Amelia to forgive her mother and build a relationship with her, which they did.\n\n

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But she told me every day that I was the best father anyone could ever have.\n\n

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What can we learn from this story?\n\n

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  1. Appreciate what you have.\u00a0Molly threw her family away and discovered later in life that she couldn\u2019t exactly get it back.\n
  2. Some responsibilities require sacrifices.\u00a0Getting pregnant at a young age is a big deal, which means that you might have to give up partying and other youthful shenanigans.\n\n\n
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    Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.\n\n

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    This account is inspired by our reader\u2019s story but written by a professional writer. All names have been changed to protect identities and ensure privacy. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone\u2019s life.\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I fell in love with a pregnant woman and promised to help her raise the baby, but she decided to have fun and avoid her responsibilities. She abandoned me only to return years later to do something unspeakable. I met Molly at college. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, but she […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1196,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions\/1196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}