Pressure of bringing a child into the world can sunder the strongest of bonds

Here’s the story, with the names changed to protect the innocent, because everybody involved in it is innocent. That’s the sad part. Or one of the sad parts.

They met in university. They looked like a couple. Sounded like a couple. Settled into being a pretty damn perfect couple for nearly a year and then broke up. Civilly. No, don’t laugh.

They still managed to stay in the same circle, still managed to have fun within that group. A few of their peers, whose own breakups had been uncivil, disorderly, chaotic, and characterised by electronically-thrown mire and physically thrown crockery, held them up to each other as the perfect model of how to do a mutual parting.