Search Results for: blog thinking of the other parent as a business partner

Should You Go Into Business Alone or With Others?

One of the choices that a person must make when becoming a home-based professional is whether to create your own business, buy into a business opportunity offered by someone else, or find a home-based job. If you decide to create your own home-based business, you may be wondering whether you should create a business run solely by you or whether you should involve other people in your venture. I must warn you that I am highly opinionated on this topic, so please be aware that this post is solely my opinion on the matter and should in no way discourage … Continue reading →

Visualization and Affirmations for Single Parents

What can we do to quiet all those negative voices and pessimistic opinions (from others and ourselves) that might be haunting our daily lives? As a single parent, we may hear plenty of “no” voices and not enough “yes” voices. Instead of expecting those “yes” voices to come from somewhere outside ourselves, we may need to be our own loudest cheerleader. Many people turn to visualization techniques and the use of positive affirmations to help keep the outlook positive. For a single parent, we really do need to find ways to cheer ourselves on and pat ourselves on the back–since … Continue reading →

Try to Keep Parenting and Financial Discussions Separate

I know that not all single parent families are formed by divorce or separation, but many of us do have another parent or an “ex” out there to contend with. Emotions and history can make communication and joint decision-making tough. One way to try to keep things a bit more “functional” is to keep financial and property discussions separate from discussions about parenting and child concerns. I think that money conversations can complicate just about any relationship and financial matters are definitely at the top of the list when it comes to stressful conversations we have with our child’s other … Continue reading →

Figuring Out the Best Time for Co-Parenting Discussions

Sometimes, timing is everything. While I’ve written before about how to behave like “business partners” with your child’s other parent, and some ideas for how to get your mind right for negotiations, I also think that it takes some skill to determine when is the best time to broach certain subjects and discuss everything from parenting time to school field trips. Part of the problem with getting the timing right is that we may consciously or sub-consciously get the timing WRONG–if we are still locked in arguments, battles, or power struggles with our child’s other parent, we may be purposefully … Continue reading →

Negotiating (and Renegotiating) Which Parent Does What

Many of us single parents have an ex-spouse or co-parent who we need to work with in the process of raising our children. Good or bad, adequate working relationship or not, we still have to find a way to negotiate (and often times, renegotiate) which parent is going to take care of what. This can be anything but an easy, comfortable task! I’m speaking from experience when I admit that even the best laid plans can go awry. I tend to be a painfully organized person when it comes to paperwork and agreements, and just because it is written down … Continue reading →

Thinking of the Other Parent as a Business Partner

One of the best morsels of advice I received when I was going through my divorce was to learn how to think of my ex-husband and my children’s partner as a co-parent or business partner in the task of raising our children. It freed me up to reorganize my thinking and focus on the fact that we would remain connected in the process of raising the children (even if on some levels, I would rather that weren’t the case). Thinking of the Ex as a “coworker” is a great way to create a functional working relationship while sharing in the … Continue reading →

Balancing Home And Work Is Not Always Easy

If you work from home in addition to being a stay at home parent, you might feel overwhelmed sometimes. Raising kids is a full time job, and aside from nap time (if your child still takes naps) you may not be able to get much work done until after the kids are in bed. Also, as an adult member of the household, you probably have quite a few chores that you are responsible for. Add in trying to find time to exercise, time to pursue your own interests, and time to spend with your spouse or partner and there are … Continue reading →

He’s Got Her Wrapped Around His Little Finger!

Chase has been dating Amy, a 28 year old single mother, for over a year. Things are getting serious; they’ve even been batting around the “M” word. She is attractive, kind, funny, considerate, and they both love to fish and camp. In a nutshell, she’s everything he’s been looking for in a life partner…except for one little thing… a twenty-eight pound, 3 year old little thing, named Marcus. “Now don’t get me wrong, he’s really cute and everything” admits Chase, “but she jumps every time he cries! And I mean every time! He has totally got her wrapped around his … Continue reading →

How Does Your Temperament Impact on Your Marriage?

In a recent comment pastfirst said that cultural background can affect a marriage. So can your temperament. So can that of your spouse. If you are an optimist and he is a pessimist that will affect the way you look at situations. It may not necessarily be for the worst. Sometimes it is good to have that balance. I’m like Nellie out of ‘South Pacific,’ I’m the ‘cockeyed optimist’ in our marriage, which can lead to problems. Such a person is not careful that sometimes unrealistic and too optimistic expectations can lead to disappointment if things don’t turn out as … Continue reading →

Can You Share Concerns Safely with the Ex?

Communication with the Ex is a big challenge for many divorced and separated parents. We talk about it fairly often here because it can be such a huge problem. What can we talk about? When? And how best should we go about it? If we are in a situation where we are co-parenting and sharing custody of the child or children, then we need to be able to communicate with each other. Unfortunately, many divorced and separated parents feel like they cannot share their true concerns about their children for fear that it opens them up to criticism or that … Continue reading →