Single Moms on What No One Tells You About Divorce After Kids

Divorce sucks. There’s no way around it. Even if you're positive that it’s the right thing for you and for your family it’s still not the outcome anyone hoped for when you clutched a bouquet and swapped rings in front of all your friends, God, and the caterers. Even the friendliest divorce makes life more complicated for you, your kids, and their other parent—and too often divorce is the opposite of friendly. That said, for many women divorce is an optimistic act, an affirmation that they believe there’s a happier future waiting for them, if they hang in there through the hard adjustments. In that spirit, here’s some learned wisdom from been-there-and-back single moms, some newly separated, and others with their unhappy marriages more than a decade in the rear view.