{"id":882,"date":"2009-12-16T06:08:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T12:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=882"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:03:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:03:39","slug":"single-parenting-at-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/16\/single-parenting-at-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Parenting at the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Me with the Kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The next couple weeks pose a challenge for any family, but a particular challenge for those of us who are divorced parents, and particularly for our kids.\u00a0 One immediately thinks of the Hallmark movie moments of passing the kids from one house to another, the two Christmas dinners, etc.<\/p>\n

But a more difficult thing to negotiate is which side of the family gets the pre-divorce traditions.\u00a0 Some are sorted out in the settlement \u2014 you get Christmas Eve, I get Christmas Day.\u00a0 But others aren\u2019t, like who gets to take the kids to the Hollidazzle Parade<\/a> downtown, or to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum<\/a> to see the Christmas train.\u00a0 Who gets to watch A Christmas Story<\/em><\/a> with the kids?\u00a0 Those little details are neither negotiated in the divorce, nor are they particularly easy to negotiate on the fly.\u00a0 In fact, the nostalgia, emotion, and sentiment around the holidays make these even more difficult to negotiate than the usual mundane details of the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve taken to developing some new traditions.\u00a0 We\u2019re reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/a><\/em>, which I\u2019m reading from my parents\u2019 first edition copy and remembering what a truly wonderful story it is.\u00a0 We baked about a ton of cookies with my mom last weekend.\u00a0 And we\u2019re gonna do some new things that I hope to make annual occurrences over the holiday break from school.<\/p>\n

While I can rationalize the change in our family dynamic, it is a particular challenge for the children at the holidays, which is all the more reason to develop some patterns and rhythms that will provide them some comfort.<\/p>\n

Have you got any tips or hints for me?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next couple weeks pose a challenge for any family, but a particular challenge for those of us who are divorced parents, and particularly for our kids.\u00a0 One immediately thinks of the Hallmark movie moments of passing the kids from one house to another, the two Christmas dinners, etc. But a more difficult thing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1060,242,580],"class_list":["post-882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","tag-divorce","tag-fatherhood","tag-single-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nSingle Parenting at the Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The next couple weeks pose a challenge for any family, but a particular challenge for those of us who are divorced parents, and particularly for our\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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