Handing My Children Over To A Stranger
The lessons and challenges of being a co-parent
There were so many aspects of being a single parent that I could never have understood before I got here. I guess it’s similar to parenting in general… you can read the books, speak to other people and think you are prepared but then along comes this new reality and you realise you knew nothing. Co-parenting is a challenge nothing prepares you for.
Outside of the logistics, financial aspects and dividing of two lives that can never be fully divided while they share young children, there are the emotions, recriminations, hurt feelings, and memories that lie between adults who were once best friends and lovers, and now not much better than enemies.
Sometimes, quiet randomly I find it hard to meet his gaze. It always catches me off guard when it happens, but sometimes it feels like I’m standing in front of a stranger, handing my children over and I don’t have a clue who the person in front of me is.
This weekend, standing under grey skies, my feet avoiding puddles in the car park of a train station halfway between our two towns at the designated time, my eyes landed at his feet.
No matter how excited they are to see him, or how often I’ve been asked ‘how long until we see Dad again?’, the actual…
