You are letting whether or not this particular woman wants you determine your self-worth. Did you ever stop to think that her not wanting a connection with you may say more about her than it does about you? You may have built a pedestal for someone who doesn't quite deserve it. She may seem better to you than some people you've encountered. For a spell there, she seemed approachable in ways most people don't seem to you. For a spell there, you found some warmth in her company. She seemed special and worth cultivating. She probably has her gifts and there probably are a lot of worse people in the world (like me.) But there are better people than her out there.

You've idealized her. When someone we think is close to wonderful rejects us, we feel just awful about ourselves. You don't really care what I think. (No reason why you should.) You care what she thinks. You are upset because you worry that I might be right in guessing what she thinks. I don't control what she thinks. I'm only guessing. (Based on what you've told us.) Maybe I'm the worst guesser in the world. What I think doesn't matter worth a darn to your life. And neither does what your father thinks. He's been wrong about plenty (stuff you don't even know about.) There I go, guessing again.

Don't give others so much power. (Starting with Dad.)

I think I read you are in your 30's. That's young enough to re-plot your course in life. There is no shortage of lonely young women out there who might be quite companionable, if given half a chance. Some are not as wonderful as this lady you've been interested in. And some are a darn sight better. There is enough evidence, far as I'm concerned, that this lady does not have it all together. Plus, she does something that a lot of nice people don't do. To spare herself a little awkwardness, she talks blather at you, knowing that it has you painfully confused. You think that's nice because it gives you hope. It's not nice. It's thoughtless of her, at best

For people with children (even grown ones,) life is way busier than the unattached have any idea. To say someone always has other things to do does not mean that you are without value. But she is at a stage of life when pretty much everything she does is goal-oriented. Her days of "hanging out" are behind her. No woman with a kid has much time to hang out with some single guy just to pleasantly pass the time. She's running out of time. She's under more pressure than you have any idea. Her plans made earlier in life went off the rails. She's now scrambling to salvage what she can of what opportunities are left.

You might like to hang out and share your dreams and aspirations with a receptive listener. There are young women who have the time for that, and the interest. This woman has neither. It's not because you are not interesting. You are at a stage of life that she left behind a long time ago. She's got problems to solve. How she spends her time is something she decides in a cold, calculating way. It is foreign to the thinking of someone young and unburdened with the responsibility of having dependants. She couldn't explain this to you, if she tried. She's not going to try. She can connect easier with others who are in the same boat she's in. The boat she's in is not a place to be envied.

In the search for meaningful connectedness, you can do a lot better than her. Give others a chance. Be willing to take a risk. If you ask someone for a date who says no, it won't kill you. Ask 10 more. That can't hurt worse than how you're living.