[Livia]

Originally Posted by Soldier Boy

The thing is, unless you're talking about yourself (which I doubt you are), all you can be talking about is what someone else has told you about their situation. That they didn't see it coming. And yeah I get that if it's someone close to you, you want to take them at their word, and probably trust them.

Personally? I don't know anyone this has happened to who didn't **** around and find out. Took for granted that their kids would accept poor or low-effort behaviour from them and would still stay in their lives, and then get real sad about it all of a sudden when it turns out not to be the case. OF COURSE they're going to tell other people that they didn't and couldn't possibly have seen it coming.

When people cut out family they invariably have a good reason for doing so. It's really that simple. People don't abandon good family relationships over night on a whim.

Someone close in my family. We all saw it play out... It was harrowing. Doesn't make me an expert but it shows me it can happen. And you can't really say that people don't abandoned family relations on a whim when I know they sometimes do. Not just their father but their aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents...