How would you have handled this?

Echoing Ace's post...why are you stopping the column?

No doubt your (adult) children are upset about the fractured family situation, but it's your marriage, your life, your future at stake...and your column that has probably paid the bills and supported those kids all these years. Your son goes home to his wife and kids every night. Maybe he should give dad a break and offer support instead of outrage.

 

huntsie, my wife and I separated a month ago. I took a job away from Sand Mountain and moved back in with my dad. She and I have come to terms that we want to have each other and the time apart was the best thing for us. I hope it works out the same for you and your family.

Your column is a joy to read.

 

I think you handled this with sensitivity and with candor. That's not an easy tightrope to walk.

Add me to the list that wonders why Snapshots would necessarily "go away" now.

 

I see this differently than most others, I guess. I apologize in advance.

There's no way you should be surprised at this reaction. The very fact that you ran it past everyone tells me you had some clue there was a chance for this. And the one you didn't get the OK from reacted badly ... what a shock. In your heart of hearts, you knew this might happen, which is why you went to them first in the first place. And you just happened to not get permission from the one who would blow his roof over it. What a coincidence.

I know in your mind it's completely innocent, and consciously, I'm sure it is. But ... connect the dots.

Which brings us to, yes, taking just a little responsibility for the separation probably would have gone a long way.

Again, to you, you were completely blindsided, you have no idea why, etc. I feel for you, and I hope I'm never in that spot. There can't be anything worse.

But to the reader, either you are not painting the full picture as the innocent, or she is heartless, soulless, etc. And I can't see her kids liking either one of those options.

Likewise, printing the letter from the daughter who says all this oversharing is a little raw, but in the end she is good with it might be a sore subject, too. It's telling the kid who is not OK with it that he should not feel that way. See? Susie says it's fine.

I hope everything works out. And I don't mean anything personal in pointing this stuff out -- it's just a perspective that wasn't represented here.

And I do appreciate the full disclosure from the columnist who has made his family the centerpiece of his work. Did Dave Barry every do this? If so I missed it.

Best of luck to you.

 

good job on it...great that you can be that transparent.

I think your son is likely just pissed at the situation and using this as a way to vent. Sorry man.

 

Off topic, but the only thing that stuck with me was how something started on Jan. 1, 2000, was supposedly turning 12 in 2011.

 

Seems overly dramatic that you'd discontinue the column.

 

Please start the column again. Think about it, how many readers are in the same situation as before. How are you single after 25 years of marriage? That's a journey, and a slice of life I think the readers would want to read. Life is tough, keep writing.

 

Thanks for the feedback regarding continuing the column, but the premise of the piece over the past 11 years has been that it's a typical "slice of family life" type of thing -- a weekly peek in our windows, I sometimes called it, or a "snapshot" of family life.
A little tough to maintain that context in a scenario where my wife has punched me in the stomach and my son is kicking me when I'm down. Apologies if I'm being "overly dramatic," but that's where we are right now.

 

There are millions of people whose 'slice of family life' includes separation and divorce and rough times....probably more than those who have sweet happy snapshots.

Maybe you can find a way to do the column with a shifted focus, and really reach out to a lot of people who relate to where you are.

 

I agree. I bet it would be great if you continued.