Mark’s latest post declares: “A quiet dad is either plotting his success or facing unthinkable pain.”

The irony couldn’t be louder.

Mark is not quiet. He is a constant stream of Facebook reels, reposts about betrayal, ex-wives, “alienation,” and toxic relationships. His feed is an endless loop of blame and victimhood. That’s not silence—it’s broadcasting.

And “plotting success”? That’s the question worth asking: What does Mark consider success?

For most fathers, success looks like showing up for your kids, fulfilling obligations, and building stability. For Mark, the pattern tells a different story:

• Financial Games: Success is earning money and hiding it—ducking child support, evading restitution, or slipping past tax liens.
• Abuse Without Consequence: Success is manipulating, undermining, and emotionally harming others, then spinning the narrative so he walks away as the “victim.”
• Erasure as Victory: Success is convincing outsiders that Melissa, Tori, or even his own sons are the problem, while he maintains the spotlight.
• Dark Triumphs: At its ugliest, success might mean imagining himself outlasting or destroying those who’ve challenged him—whether by reputation, emotional collapse, or worse.

So let’s look at what Mark’s current “quiet” really is:

• Noise Where It’s Convenient: Daily social media rants about betrayal and alienation.
• Silence Where It Counts: Over 650 days without asking how his sons are doing—not once.
• Pickleball Over Parenting: New $150 paddles, yet still no progress on the court-ordered evaluations that would reopen the door to his kids.
• DARVO as a Lifestyle: Plotting only the next excuse, the next reversal, the next way to avoid the simple, clear path set before him.

A truly quiet dad—one plotting success—would be building trust, healing, and accountability. Instead, Mark’s “quiet” is the silence of absence, dressed up in noise and excuses.

Because in the end, Mark’s definition of success is just survival through chaos. Real success—the kind his sons deserve—remains something he has never chosen.