Surviving Co-Parenting: A Story of Resilience and Hope

For those of you who understand because you’ve lived it and those who are here to be grateful you haven’t, and believe me I hope you never will, I’m sharing how I feel right now.

I’ve been divorced now and living this “co-parenting” life for almost 8 years. Now my kids are teens but still minors. Just the older age makes it easier. But I still cry when they leave me every other week. It is still hard.

But I am thankful for the small blessing that they no longer have to transition to the home of the girlfriend of their father. For 4 years my kids had to live in that house. They frequently saw giant bugs inside the house. The dog regularly pooped and peed on the floor. They were harassed and made to feel comfortable just living. The girlfriend’s kids all had their own rooms while mine all shared. The girlfriend constantly complained about them to their father who would then punish them for not being nice enough to his girlfriend. Meanwhile the father and girlfriend ridiculed me in front of the children, encouraging them to laugh at me because I chose not to have a partner and instead focus on my children and the business I built to support them.

So as of the beginning of this school year my kids’ father finally got his own apartment. He still brings his girlfriend around which is utterly bizarre after he announced the breakup formally to our kids, but at least they do not actually have to live in her very unsanitary and emotionally unhealthy home.

It gets darker. This woman lost her husband purportedly to gun suicide shortly before she and my ex were publicly together. Then while living in her home two of our boys died by suicide using guns from the same home. Purportedly. This is more than coincidence. I always suspected something was off with the food my children were fed while there because my girls would have terrible stomach problems as well as parasites evident.

If you are experiencing the pain of having your children have to live in an unfit environment because your court documents require it, keep fighting, keep speaking out for your children. If you haven’t experienced this you may think I am crazy but I promise this is all fact.