My 10-year-old son came home, barely greeted me, then went to his room. Later I overheard him on the phone excitedly saying, “Hi, Mom! I’ll tell you about my grades tomorrow. I’m coming to see you instead of school.”
The next day I followed him and saw him go to a house where a woman in her 30s greeted him warmly and hugged him. He called her “Mom.”
Confused and hurt, I realized I didn’t know who she was or why my son was so close to her.
That night I acted normal when he came home, trying to understand what was really going on.