Category: Divorce
-
“Looking Back at Divorce‑Day: The Day Everything Ended and Started Again”
This week was the big D‑Day — the day the divorce became official. For anyone who’s been through it, you know what I mean: separation and divorce finalized on the same day. No buffer. No limbo. No going back. All these years later, it’s strange to look back on a day that ended one version…
-
On Full Moons, Teddy Bears, and Growing Up
Last night was a full moon here. A full moon on a clear, cold spring night. When I was a little boy, I used to sit at my window and stare at the moon for what felt like hours. Even now, whenever I hear the old Sesame Street song “If I Could Live on the…
-
The “I Don’t Remember” Game: What My Kids Taught Me About Two-Home Childhoods
Every two days I play the “I don’t remember” game with my kids. I pick them up from school, ask how their day or weekend was, and the answer is almost always the same: “I don’t remember.” I try not to push. I know divorce is a huge shift for young kids, and part of…
-
Navigating the Christmas Blues as a Single Parent
Christmas isn’t an easy time of year. There’s no way around it. The creatures have fun—they essentially get two Christmases—but I’m sure being pulled between two houses isn’t easy. And as a parent, it means I miss half their Christmas mornings, which is a big thing for me. As part of our parenting plan, we…
-
Single Dad Life: Guilt, Overscheduling, and Overcompensating
The first time I heard about overcompensating, it was a story about someone else. A friend of a friend—a single, divorced mother—had bought her daughter an elaborate makeup set. It was a big purchase (I don’t know much about hair, so you can imagine I know even less about makeup sets), and my friend described…
-
What We Take Up the Mountain—and What We Leave Behind
The first time we went up “the mountain,” it was early fall—just a couple of weeks after we moved into separate houses. “The mountain,” in reality, is a local ski hill (and yes, mountain is a generous term) that offers ski lift rides in the fall for leaf viewing. At the top, you get a sweeping view…
-
A weekend in Ottawa (Fall Romance Edition)
If you think Ottawa is just home to stuffed-up bureaucrats and overstuffed politicians—you’re not wrong. Originally elevated by Queen Victoria from a small lumber town to the national capital, it’s not exactly the city people write love songs about. But look beneath the surface (or paperwork), and you’ll find world-class museums, quiet canals, and a…
-
Surviving the new normal: Divorce and the first day of school
This is a story about accepting the new normal—and not looking back. I was the one who dropped my son off for his first day of school. He started kindergarten during COVID, and his small country school had created an elaborate system to keep the younger kids separated from the rest of the population. What…