Love and parenting seem to be very related. But when you co-parent with someone are not in love with any more you need to even MORE love.
My son’s father and I were together for 19 years. By that point, we could only agree on one thing: our son. He is the most important thing in our lives. We had to put him first. And though we decided not to live together anymore, we agreed to be the best parents we could to our son.
Since then we talk almost daily about our son and what is best for him. We have an open and flexible schedule that allows him to see or go with the one that has “the best plan.” We try to manage our calendars in order to give him our best quality time. To be able to do it this way we have a lot of respect for the other’s work schedule and personal needs. So, if there is a day or night when he’s supposed to be with his dad or with me but something pops up, we cover for each other.
If by now you think I’m telling you this because both of us are still single, don’t need to work and live a block apart, you are completely wrong. Each of us works, has a significant other, and we live more than 20 minutes away from each other. He also has a lovely 1-year old boy.
How do we make co-parenting work?
We talk. We talk a lot about our kid and about how to make him happy. This is our biggest source of guidance. We celebrate his birthday all together, we all go to his soccer games and share dinner or brunch at least once a month. Our doors are always open to each other and our families.
Three years have gone by, and we are extremely happy and proud parents of Pedro. And the best thing is that he is also proud of us! “Now I have a bigger family,” Pedro says.
