One of the biggest adjustments newly minted single parents must make following a separation or divorce is adjusting to holidays without their children present, or present for only part of the time. Whether the kids are babies, teens, or young adults, the result can be an unfamiliar silence that can take some getting used to. As a family law attorney and divorced single mom (of four adult children) who remarried a divorced single dad of two more than a decade ago, my husband and I have walked (and are still walking) this road, just like you may be this holiday.
We both knew there was something special between us. We spoke the language of grief, of solo parents, of young widows who'd lost their forever person to cancer.