SCHOOL MUMS FEAR I’LL NICK THEIR HUBBIES

Dear Coleen

I’m recently divorced and my ex-husband has moved back to Spain where he’s from. We’ve agreed that he’ll take our two girls during school holidays and we’ll also Skype once a week. So far, so good.

My problem is, in the small community where I live, I’m being frozen out by some of the mums at the school my daughters attend. They’ve stopped inviting me to things and don’t engage with me in the playground. I thought I was imagining it at first, but I’m not.

I hope it doesn’t sound vain to say that now I’m a free agent, I think they’re worried I’m going to steal their husbands!

Last year, there was a divorced woman who did just that and she ended up taking her kids out of the school due to the scandal.

Any advice – I feel I’m being treated so unfairly?

Coleen says

Well, it sounds like you’ve hit the nail on the head in the context of the last divorcee – you’ve become a threat! Of course it’s really unfair and small-minded that they’ve pigeonholed all divorced women as untrustworthy maneaters. If you wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they’re doing it unconsciously because deep down that’s what they’re scared of.

If I were you, I’d just be brazen about it and say: “I get the feeling you’re avoiding me because of what happened with the last divorced mum, but I’m not her and I’m not interested in your husbands.

“It’s hard enough being a single parent without being frozen out by people I thought were friends.”

And, in the meantime, make an effort to broaden your social group and branch out of your immediate local area.