Co-parenting in Peace Blogpost: The Wisdom

Wrote this post years ago and can't figure out how to access my old blog, so I'll share it here.

Update:  Still co-parenting in peace.  My daughter buzzes between houses - I now live around the corner and a couple streets over from her dad, so she can ride her bike or walk the dogs back and forth.  We work around each other's schedules and life goes pretty smoothly.  It's a choice to treat people with respect.  Treat the exes with respect and try to connect with them on a human level.  Getting super upset with them about God knows what (but more than likely it stems from why you are not with them) only makes you crazy.  

 Becoming a mother changed everything for me (as it does most, if not all, of us), and I'm grateful for that. And because I love who my kid is, as an individual, so much, I'm thankful for her dad.  If it hadn't been him, it wouldn't be her.  Even when I'm angry and completely frustrated with her dad over something, I keep that in mind. And...we're going to be part of each other's existence for a long, long, long time... so it seems much more healthy to me to try to figure out how to communicate and solve conflicts with kindness rather than frustration.  

Some of her friends have very strict visitation schedules - not budging for anything.  Others can't communicate with the one parent while at the other parent's house.   I know one family that has so much internal strife, the parents communicate only through the child.   I'm happy we've chosen the high and light road.  I'd recommend it to others.   We're lucky it works.