Category: Dealing with the ex

I was trading my kids with their dad this past weekend when it happened.  We’d agreed to meet just outside the gym in the mall and from there, the kids would go with him. But after I greeted him and passed over a few items he required, my 7-year-old daughter suddenly blurted out really loud. “Daddy, [...]

Written by blended family expert Shirley Cress Dudley. 1- Keep contact to a minimum. One phone call a day is excessive, several text messages a day is extremely excessive. If you have a subject related to the kids, speak briefly and clearly about your expectations. Emails are better than phone calls if your issue is [...]

Don’t expect to be friends with your ex.  Not at the start anyways.  This is what I wish someone, or many people, had told me at the beginning of my divorce. I’m not saying you should expect to be enemies; no, not at all.  I’m saying you should aim for something in the middle – like a [...]

When Barb contacted me via email last week, she was clearly very upset.  Only six months into her divorce, she’d discovered that her separated husband had a new serious girlfriend; they were even making plans to move in together.  “It’s not that I want him back,” she wrote.  “But it’s such a slap in the face – [...]

Studies have shown that it’s the ongoing hostilities between divorcing parents that really emotionally damage and traumatize children.   So how do you protect your children’s emotional well-being if divorce matters are in the Red Zone, the two of you aren’t speaking, and you can’t even stand being in the same building as him/her? You may ‘know’ you should smile and talk civilly and put [...]

“EX-husband,”  “EX-wife,”  “The EX.”   The term “ex” is one we all use after divorce, in both our written and oral communications.  It’s something we don’t  give much thought to either – it’s just part of the English language, right?  But have you ever noticed how you feel when say it?   What about when someone ELSE uses it in conversation?  Cause [...]