Have harsh financial times fallen upon your divorced family? Are you worried your kids will have to go without sports activities, day camps, trips to the zoo, etc. this summer?
Because of the recession, many of you are struggling to put food on the table, let alone pay for fun summer camps/programs for your children. But I’m writing this article to give you hope: many organizations offer fee assistance, and you and your kids may be eligible.
I live in Calgary, Alberta, so the proceeding info applies mainly to Canadians. But chances are excellent that financial support is available in various forms in the United States as well. You just need to know where/how to look for it. Please use my prompts as guidelines. If you know of any other resources for single parents in these circumstances, please add them in the Comments of this blog.
I keep thinking about Michael Jackson’s family and the pain they must all be in. The sudden loss of a Dad to young kids is especially terrifying. Michael Jackson’s kids are 12, 11, and 7. A girl and two boys raised by their Dad, a single parent.
You can only know what a Dad’s sudden death feels like if you’ve felt it. With permission from my 12-year-old nephew Stephen, I will share something he recently wrote in school for Fathers Day about his Dad's sudden death 4 years ago.
My brother Stephen died suddenly at 40. Stephen Jr. and his twin sister Sydney were 8, and their brother Dean was 7. My sister-in-law Susan has since remarried a lovely divorced father named Gary. I was outside in the driveway that tragic day when the cops pulled up, heartbroken for the three little faces inside pressed up against the window.
If you are getting divorced, you may want to plan a party to celebrate. After all, your girlfriends absolutely deserve to have some fun after the enormous amount of time and advice they’ve no doubt invested on your behalf. And besides, you too deserve to have a little fun, when all is said and done. The details of your party — such as whom to invite, where and when to have it, and what to serve — will largely depend on the type of divorce you’re planning.
For instance, if yours is going to be a quickie divorce, taking place in a sunny, foreign locale, there will be logistics to consider i.e.: travel, hotel and ground transportation, and of course knowing the proper legal protocol to follow and the location of a courthouse. If you’re going to stay a few days and work on your tan, you’ll need to pack a bag, making sure to remember the sunscreen, a trashy romance novel and the necessary paperwork.
Snapshot: I was three months pregnant with my first child. I was on my knees in front of the toilet bowl, having just thrown up for the sixth time that day. Suddenly, movement at the bathroom door caught my eye.
He was standing there. Naked. Touching himself.
“Are you done yet?” he asked impatiently. “C'mon baby — let’s get it on.”
My stomach lurched. Tears filled my eyes. “I’ll be there in second,” I replied looking down. I pulled myself up off the floor, brushed my teeth, and proceeded to our bedroom to fulfill my ‘wifely duty’…
That pivotal event haunted me for the rest of my seven-year marriage. Anger surged towards him: How DARE he expect sex when I’m obviously sick as a dog from carrying his child? Then, anger surged towards ME: Why don’t you just dam well say ‘NO’?
TLC announced today that production has been halted on Jon & Kate Plus 8 following the Gosselins' Monday revelation that they're splitting up. As a founding partner of Firstwivesworld.com, I want TLC to continue the ''reality" of what really happens when two people with kids decide to call it quits.
According to the LA Times, the network made the decision to halt production, not the family. Hmmm, the network signed on for a reality show about a couple raising 8 small kids, knowing full well that reality shows often cause divorce, and now they're surprised?
Only six episodes of the 40-episode season have aired. Through tears on Monday's show, Kate declared "the show must go on!"
If anyone could feel the Gosselin's pain on TV last night, it's we, the women of First Wives World. Jon and Kate Gosselin of the TLC reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8 are getting a divorce after ten years of marriage.
No doubt about it, divorce is tough stuff. Divorce is a broken dream that sometimes cracks before it blows up. And time, fame, and money often change the marital thought process. Women used to stay in bad marriages because financially they couldn't get out. Now, strong, unfulfilled women with cash make bolder choices — like to have affairs to get through the limbo. Husbands who can't win — privately, or not so privately — bust out too.
These are adult reactions to a slow-stewing marital stalemate without hurting the kids.
Yes Kate, it's sometimes easier to keep the lie going and sneak a little romance to get through, but sooner or later someone needs to call it. It seems to me you likely didn't think Jon would. But he did.
I’m lonely tonight and I miss him. Well, not him exactly. It’s more like I miss the thought of him. The good him, the man I married with my heart a-flutter. The man who always made me feel safe, until he didn’t and it all went south with us. But still… I am lonely. And tired.
There is so much to do around this 100 year-old house we bought together. We both thought that restoring it would save our floundering marriage, kind of the same impulse people have when they think that having a baby will bring them back to the loving place, but without the diapers and midnight feedings.
