One weekend, while swiping through a dating app, single mom *Jennifer saw a face she recognized.
It was a married father from her daughter’s primary school.
“I was a little surprised, but not really shocked,” she tells Kidspot.
The *Queensland, Australia woman became “mom friends” with this woman when their now-high school-aged kids were in primary school.
She and the woman weren’t close friends, but their kids would have play dates when they were younger. When the kids went to different high schools, the friendship fizzled out and they lost touch.
Jennifer remembers the woman telling stories of her husband coming home late from after-work drinks.
“I know men fairly well and can smell a cheater from a mile away, so I wasn’t really shocked.”
Then she was immediately faced with a dilemma: Does she say something?
“I ran to my daughter’s room and showed her the profile and my very mature, intelligent child responds with, ‘Mum, don’t you say a word!’.”
Jennifer had already come to that conclusion – “You never get involved in other people’s business because you do not know their personal situation”.
So she said nothing.
“Experience has made me wise to understand that some women and wives deep down know their husbands are not faithful but prefer to close a blind eye for a variety of reason.”
But then it happened again…
A few days later, another familiar face appeared on the dating app—another married man from the school community, and someone she knew very well.
“The fathers know each other,” she says. “I started to wonder whether this was something perhaps the men in that group of dads were playing [with] or just being curious [about].”
Jennifer put it down to the men being curious, supporting her reason for not telling either woman of the online actions of their husbands.
“I do not want to be the person who breaks up a marriage and family because one silly person is curious.
“Men and women are very different so we need to tread carefully before blurting out things may cause irreversible damage and ruin a family.”
So she said nothing again.
As far as she knows, both couples are still together.
If the situation was reversed, however, Jennifer admits she would definitely want to know.
“Only because I know I can handle it, as I would be strong enough to cope and because I am more open to understanding why someone would do it.”
*Jennifer’s name and home state have been changed for privacy reasons