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Is there any way to save this relationship after such an accusation?
I was repeatedly sexually abused as a child by three different abusers. On one occasion, when I was 7 years old, I awoke one morning to find feces and blood in my underwear. Being a child, I assumed I had just soiled myself and I was ashamed, so I hid the underwear. Later on, I told my stepmother what I had seen and she took me to see my gynecologist. He informed me that I had been abused. 14 years later, with a child of my own, I returned home last night after leaving my daughter with my boyfriend to find feces and blood in her diaper and that she screamed when I wiped her. This has happened before, but something triggered that memory this time, and I was stricken with fear for my daughter. Just the irrational, faceless fear. But I know what kind of person my boyfriend is. I wasn’t accusing him. I just asked him to tell me what had happened to her so that I could fight my fear with facts. I was looking for reassurance. He now feels that I believe him to be abusive, that he can never be alone with my daughter again and our relationship is ruined.
Where can I go from here?
Is there any way to make him see that I was experiencing an instance of association with my experience, like a flashback of some sort, and that it was not an actual mistrust of his character? Is there any way to save this relationship?
This man means everything to my daughter and I. He is the only father she has ever known, and I would never forgive myself for coming between the two of them. He has been there when nobody else has, and I fear that I have thrown that away. I will try any suggestion, take any measure to prevent this family of ours from being torn apart.
Thank you for your thoughtful and prompt reply.
Daughter has been examined for this before and it stems from a problem with chronic constipation, I believe.
When I discovered this in her diaper, I asked if he knew why there would be blood in her diaper (what makes this even worse is that I told him this had happened before from constipation) and why she screamed when I wiped her. He asked where she was bleeding from, and I said, rather irritably "down there". I tried wiping her again and then said again "I’m just trying to figure out why MY daughter (again, language I shouldn’t have used) is screaming when I try to wipe her".
This is when he realized what must have crossed my mind, and got very upset.
I actually didnt say it was in her diaper, to begin with, I just said "…why she would be bleeding…"
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