Here’s the latest dispatch from the co-parenting trenches from our friend, online partner, and WeParent founder, Talibah Mbonisi:

When I first started on this WeParent journey, long before the site ever launched, I thought that effective co-parenting meant that there was never any drama, that through hard work, self-development, lots of prayer and meditation, you could transcend all that. I guess it was my version of the two-household white picket-fence fantasy.

And, so, I embarked on a long, enlightening quest for my best self, the one who would be the uber-parenting partner; the co-parenting supershero who could rise above the petty and not so petty to emerge ever peaceful, understanding and yet powerful. All the helplessness, victiminess, frustration, anger and resignation would all be behind me. I was taking this mission seriously.

And, I was setting myself up for failure and a whole lot of tears, because every time something came up that thwarted my pretty picture of co-parenting bliss, I found myself in the exact place I was trying to escape in the first place. My desire to transcend conflict, i.e., never experience it just wasn’t realistic.