27. The Common Stages In The Co-Parenting Journey

Today’s episode is on the topic of co-parenting.

I work with divorced, separated, or never-married parents all the time at Modern Parenting Solutions and I know that the co-parenting relationship can be a tricky one.

Some co-parents find a way to work well together, while others have to figure out how to parent with a contentious and difficult ex. That’s why I say that co-parenting is a journey and that every co-parent’s journey is different.

I’m also a co-parent myself. My ex-husband and I divorced when my kids were 10 and 7 years old, and today they are 24 and 21, and I think that my ex-husband and I did a pretty good job of peacefully co-parenting our kids. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of ups and downs during our co-parenting journey, but for the most part, I believe that we were pretty successful co-parents. I used my Modern Parenting philosophy during my co-parenting journey which included:

Prioritizing respectful relationships, Focusing on helping the kids discover and grow their natural talents and abilities, and Respecting my need to grow as an individual and to be happy (because I matter too!)..

Because of all this experience with co-parenting, I’ve put all my Modern Parenting strategies in my court-approved online co-parenting class. Many parents are court-mandated or advised by their family law attorney to take a co-parenting class as part of their custody plan, so I decided to create my own co-parenting class to meet this need. Now, there are quite a few co-parenting classes available online, but I wanted mine to be different in the sense that I wanted to address the topics and questions that I get from co-parents all the time when I work with them at MPS.

Questions like:

How do I parent with a narcissistic or uncooperative ex? How do I discipline my kids if their other parent doesn’t have any discipline at their home? How do I repair my relationship with my child if it has become broken? How do I communicate to my ex and to my kids when I don’t feel like they respect me or care about what I have to say? And most importantly – how do I move on from an emotional breakup? How do I use this experience to become a better version of ME so I can enjoy life again?

I answer all these questions and more in my online court-approved co-parenting class. You can find out more information about the class by going to ModernParenitngSolutions.org/onlinecoparentingclass.

To give you an idea of what my online co-parenting course is like, and to start you on your co-parenting journey, today’s episode is one of the lessons in my online co-parenting course. It’s the lesson on the common stages of co-parenting.

I want you to get 3 things out of the episode today:

I want you to understand the common stages of the co-parenting journey, I want you to be able to identify where YOU are on the co-parenting journey, and I want you to feel confident and hopeful that if you are struggling in your co-parenting journey right now, that you CAN get to a stage in the co-parenting journey that provides you with peace, a good relationship with your child, and a great relationship with yourself too.

Ok. Let’s dive into the lesson now.