I avoid conflict. Frequent challenges to my beliefs, words or actions wear me down and suck away priceless energy. Despite that confession, I am in the middle of training to become a Family Mediator (primarily a Divorce Mediator). A strange choice for someone who avoids conflict, right? Oddly enough other people’s contention doesn’t bother me as [...]
Do you ever regret getting divorced? Is there any chance you and Jeff will get back together? I’ve recently fielded these questions. I guess people figure I have had enough time on my own to know whether I made a mistake or not. We started the divorce process last October. Jeff moved out in January. The divorce [...]
We chose Friday night to tell the kids. We figured this gave them a two-day buffer before they had to go back to school. Somehow Jeff (ex-husband) and I managed to make it through the pre-talk dinner without bursting into tears or throwing up. We told them we were going to have a family meeting in [...]
We sat in the divorce mediator's well appointed waiting room. Good cologne and flavored coffee mingled in the air. My then husband, Jeff, and I filled out separate forms attached to clip-boards. A Keurig coffee machine sat between us. Our drive over together was chatty and not entirely uncomfortable; a mixture of first date, sheep-to-slaughter and relief. [...]