Sharing my kids

One of the fears I had when I was going through my divorce was the idea that my kids would eventually have other parental figures in their lives besides me and their dad.

Growing up, I had a very loving family, and I always imagined giving my kids that same kind of home. When my marriage ended, there was a sadness in realizing that things wouldn’t look the way I once imagined for them.

Part of me felt like I had somehow failed to give them the “perfect” family.

One time during my health scare season, my daughter said something like, “if something happened to mom at least we have a second mom.” She was very young when she said it, maybe around seven years old. She probably didn’t mean anything by it, but I remember that it hurt my feelings.

Mom emotions can be like that.

Over time, I’ve been learning to sit with those feelings and also accept the reality of life. I can’t control every part of how my kids’ lives unfold. None of us can.

Families don’t always look the way we imagined when we were younger. But that doesn’t mean the love isn’t still there.

Everyone carries their own life experiences, their own story. Some parts are beautiful, some parts are hard.

I’m learning that sometimes the best we can do is accept things as they are, take the good with the difficult, and continue loving our kids the best we know how.

Being a parent means learning, letting go, and loving your kids through whatever shape life takes.