2.210. Reflections on a Saturday Night

I have this theory..

In relationships where the parents are divorced and the kids move back and forth between homes on a schedule there areĀ transition days. During this time the children are forced to deacclimate from one location and reacclimate to the other location and inherent rules. This is why there is a growing movement to allow the children to stay in the home and require the parents to stay there specifically on the days when they have their kids. I don’t agree with this idea. I’m not a fan of transition days, but I’m even less a fan of my life moving entirely around the schedules of my children. It breeds in these children a sense of self-importance that never ever ends well.

Still, there are transition days. For me there are a few each week. One in particular is very taxing. This entire week felt like a transition day, because we went to two major wrestling competitions–regionals and state–within days of each other. So, the kids were off schedule the whole week.

It wore my already tired bones down to a fragile nub. I snapped a few times, needing to banish myself to a corner or a room or take a walk. The entire process wears on everyone involved and on each side of it the solo parent is struggling to make a life for themselves and their kids. It is a hard life and filled with a wealth of pleasures and emotional pitfalls. It is harder than anything else–especially when new partners and new families try to merge, but above all else, its a way of living and a way of finding new happiness.