How Co-Parents Dealing with Divorce or Separation Can Stop Being Miserable During the Holidays

“Pain in life is inevitable. Suffering is optional… even during the holidays.”

A couple of years ago, here at the McGhee household, we were having a pretty dismal December… TBH, the whole Christmas thing was looking awfully darn bleak.

See… around that time, I was working away on a BRAND NEW project and was deep into utilizing all my creative juices to develop something truly useful for separating parents.

Exciting stuff, right?

The not-so-exciting part was my lil “behind the scenes” project had come with some major technical challenges and hard deadlines. As a result, there I was on the brink of Christmas, working away at my desk, feeling very unprepared, guilty, and not so festive. While the rest of the world (or so it seemed) kicked back to enjoy the holiday season, I was keeping my head down and grinding it out.

No decorations had been put up, presents hadn’t been bought, no pre-holiday baking or prepping of any kind.  It was just plain pitiful and so NOT what I had in mind.

HAVE YOU EVER TOLD YOURSELF THIS?

The weeks leading up to Christmas were miserable. I spent A LOT of time beating myself up. Instead of sugarplums dancing in my head, thoughts of… “It shouldn’t be this way,” If only I had” peppered with a few, “I just wish” took over.

And that’s the way it is with the holidays for lots of us, especially when you’re co-parenting out of two homes after a divorce. Things often aren’t the way we think they “should be” or the way we want them to be.

Maybe this is the year your children are with the other parent, and you’re spending your first post-divorce Christmas alone.

Your parents just called to say they’re coming into town and can’t wait to see the kids, but your co-parent refuses to adjust the schedule even a little bit.

The children you once cuddled and adored now don’t want to talk to you. And if they do… all you hear is, “I don’t want to see you. Just leave me alone. AND your co-parent is perfectly happy for it to stay that way.”

Like me, on that not-so-festive Christmas, you may be spending a lot of time telling yourself…

“This isn’t what I signed up for. It shouldn’t be this way.”

“I wish my co-parent would just be reasonable.”

“If only my kids knew the truth.”

It’s a bitter pill to swallow when things aren’t the way we want them to be. Although we know deep down we probably can’t change the way things are, most of us have a difficult time letting go. Instead, we tend to put a lot of mental and emotional energy into wishing they were different.

The only problem is… staying in that place keeps you stuck and miserable.

THIS ONE SIMPLE MINDSET SHIFT CAN HELP YOU STOP BEING MISERABLE

And that’s where Radical Acceptance comes in…

Radical Acceptance is a process of accepting things as they are instead of how you want them to be… you might think of it as

“It is what it is, whether I like it or not.”

When I talk to kids, I tell them that there are basically two kinds of problems in life…Problems you can fix and problems you can’t fix.

Just because you can’t fix a problem doesn’t mean you can’t change how you feel about it.

When you get more focused on the way things should be…. instead of the way they actually are, that’s when feelings of hopelessness, resentment, guilt, or anger start creeping in.

You aren’t accepting reality. You’re actually fighting against it.

And that my friend is suffering… pure misery, plain and simple.

But being miserable…. isn’t your only option.

TWO CRITICAL QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF WHEN THINGS AREN’T THE WAY YOU WANT THEM TO BE.

When things aren’t the way you want them to be…here are two critical questions to ask yourself.

First…What is it costing me to stay focused on what I can’t change?

Case in point… for me, by choosing to stay focused on what I hadn’t done for Christmas, I was missing out on what I could do to make the season meaningful in a different way. I also wasn’t doing a very good job of enjoying what I had…time with my daughter, who was home from college.

The second part of Radical Acceptance involves asking yourself….What would it take to tolerate or make peace with this situation that I don’t like?

Consider for a moment how life might be different if you just let go a little bit and tried to accept the situation instead of wishing it was different.

Once I decided to accept that this Christmas was going to be different, I found myself feeling more at peace. Instead of sulking, I decided to focus on enjoying time with my family and making this very different Christmas memorable. Keep in mind I still didn’t like the way things were, but letting go of being miserable helped me to shift my focus and explore other options.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE UP HOPE.

Which brings me to another important point… Radical Acceptance doesn’t mean things have to stay the way they are. It only means you ACCEPT the way things are FOR NOW.

You can always have hope.

So maybe you’re still not jazzed about your first Christmas alone. You may wish you had a co-parent that would be more considerate and flexible. You might even desperately long for things to go back to the way they were with your kids.

However, by accepting that there’s nothing you can do to change the current situation, for now, you’ve taken the first step towards ending the cycle of suffering.

While it’s not an easy thing to do… letting go or trying to tolerate what you can’t change gives you the emotional space to explore your options. You can choose to respond differently and consider other possibilities.

This holiday season, you, too, might find yourself struggling with a situation that you wish was different. Maybe you feel a little overwhelmed or perhaps hopeless about something you just can’t change. When those feelings pop up, I hope you’ll consider giving Radical Acceptance a try. You might be surprised at the difference one small shift can make.

Wishing you and yours a peaceful and relaxing holiday season.

X,

Need a little extra help with co-parenting?  Consider checking out my book PARENTING APART.  It was written to guide you through real-life parenting challenges and give you effective tools for tackling tough co-parenting problems.

View more information about Christina’s book.