A Happy Ending After One of Life’s Greatest Challenges!

I’m buzzing with excitement to share with you that I recently returned from my son’s wedding. Every detail was so wonderful and beautiful and I am filled with a knowing that happy endings are indeed possible for children of divorce.

My message today is to remind you that the challenges we face as we parent after divorce can reap long-term rewards. At the wedding I experienced that on a very deep personal level. It made every frustration, every disappointment, every time I compromised, forgave or settled on a parenting issue with my ex all worth the effort.

At the wedding both my ex and I were there with our spouses and considerable extended family on both sides. Some of these people I’ve seen over the years at celebrations and graduations, always on good terms. Others I haven’t seen for close to fifteen years. The genuine warmth we shared was inspiring and fulfilling as we all joined together to celebrate my son’s wedding in harmony and peace.

I wish each of you this level of joy and satisfaction when your own children are grown and choose to marry. I don’t know what the future holds for my son and his wife but today I feel deep gratitude to his father for working hard to co-parent with me since our son was eleven. I’m grateful to both of our families for being open, accepting of change, mature and responsible in handling our divorce and co-parenting issues. And I am grateful to my son for bearing with us through it all, and acknowledging us as great parents (he even wrote the Introduction to my new book, How Do I Tell the Kids about the Divorce? A Create-a-Storybook Guide to Preparing Your Children — with Love!)

We all deserve happy endings. When you take the path of creating a child-centered divorce you are gifting your children with the greatest chance of that possibility!