Mum Shares Struggles of Co-Parenting And How Her Daughter’s Drawing Made It Work

A mother has shared the emotional struggles she had co-parenting with her ex, and how her daughter’s drawings changed everything.

Mum, Rosie Dutton from Tamworth, UK, wrote on Facebook about how after the ‘heartache’ of her divorce, the next thing she had to face were the difficulties of co-parenting.

“I found it so difficult having to share my daughter. It was only one day and night a week at first, but in those times I was lost and I was lonely…I felt like I’d not only failed at my marriage but that I’d let her down somehow,” she wrote.

Realising the effects of her divorce to her daughter, Ms Dutton decided to do things with her ex-husband and daughter as a family, like day trips or birthday outings, but it was just too hard. “I really struggled seeing her dad and spending time together. I’d get really upset afterwards and so for my sanity I needed it to stop,” she said.

Then, one morning, as she was going downstairs, she found her daughter painting a sobering picture.

“I found her painting this rainbow and a picture of our family on the wall. Her dad had been painted with a sad face.

“When I asked her why she’d drawn him that way she said ‘His face is sad because he’s not in our family anymore and I know he makes you feel sad’. She said it with so much hurt and sadness in her little voice that it was a real turning point for me,” she said.

So, for the sake of her daughter, Ms Dutton decided to make co-parenting work despite how difficult it was. And she succeeded. “Over the last two years we have slowly rebuilt our relationship and as parents (and friends) we are stronger than ever for our daughter,” she wrote, adding that she and her ex now speak on the phone most days, share their daughter’s achievements, laugh at her funny moments and support each other.

“Our separation (and now divorce) doesn’t need to be the end of her family. I never want there to be a time or a place where we can’t be together, for our daughter. She deserves that. She is an absolute delight and she brightens up both of our lives,” she wrote.

Ms Dutton said that until now, the rainbow painting is still on their wall. “And if you look closely at the picture you’ll see we’re all now smiling,” she wrote.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk