The adult daughters of a midlife man

The Question

How do you support the grown up children when dad goes into midlife crisis and takes up with a woman younger than they are? In particular the grown up children's sense of being rejected.

Noel's response

The most important thing is that you do not criticize the dad and his girlfriend in front of the daughters, no matter how they feel about him. That would simply make matters worse for them.

They need your loving support, but if you criticize their father, they will feel caught in the middle.

As your daughters are adults now, their relationship with their father does not involve you. You might encourage them to get some counselling to help figure out how to talk to their father if they are feeling rejected by him.