Married with a child but from different parts of the country

[Clare0324]

My husband and I met years ago when he went enrolled in a college near me and we fell in love. He was from Virginia and I was from Ohio. We lived in both Ohio and Virginia together and one of us was always unhappy. We had a child and moved to another state thinking neither of us would get our way and we would just find happiness in each other and our family. We had a lot of issues in our relationship between cheating, drug use and anger issues but we always figured it out. We’ve done so much damage to each other and the verbal abuse has gotten so bad that I can’t take it anymore. We’ve talked about divorce and it isn’t what he wants and I’m not 100 percent sure it’s what I want yet but he told me something that I’m really struggling with. If we got divorced I would need to move back to Ohio with our son because financially I wouldn’t be able to support him on my own so I would move in with my parents. He said he wouldn’t follow us and he would try to start over somewhere else. So if we can’t make this work I now either stay in a marriage I’m not happy in or I take my son away from his father and both of them break my heart. I’m not sure what to do. 

[Wiseman2]

Talk to an attorney about your options in divorce and the logistics of moving with your son and custody.

Talk to trusted friends and family.

The first priority needs to be your son. If drugs, cheating, chronic conflict and instability characterize the marriage as you're describing, it would be best to provide a better home for yourself and your son.