If I were her...
I would have gotten another apartment in the building so they could share custody but not be in each other's faces all the time.
Problem solved!
Nobody wants to be that close to their ex-spouse.
shareFor the sake of the child. The one she abandoned she could have made that sacrifice
You probably know a bazillion divorced people in real life, everyone does. How many of them have done something like that? Zero, I betcha!
And I bet you wouldn't either, if you got divorced and had to split custody, and if you tried, your ex would ask you to move somewhere else. It'd be so awkward, running into someone you'd come to loath in the lobby and hallways.
Funny, I never got the sense that Joanna loathed Ted. From the very beginning, she seemed full of self loathing. Sure she disliked the long hours that Ted worked and his seeming indifference to child rearing. Like many husbands, he didn't pay attention to his wife's unhappiness. But it's that way for a zillion couples.
Ted obviously worked long hours so she could afford to stay home and raise her child.
They appeared to have a comfortable life. But something in Joanna made HER unhappy and she wanted more. So she took it out on Ted. I'm sure she could have found a way to get a job or further her education without abandoning her child.
At the end there seemed to be a peace between them. They didn't seem to loathe each other.
Well said.
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