1. Do you have first hand experience with a blended family or divorce?
Yap. I got divorced four years ago, had been married for 13 years and he had been my high school sweetheart so we where together for 22 years. Now I have a new relatioship and but we aren't married and we don't live together every day. We are together on weekends and hollidays.
2. What is the best thing you've experienced about it?
In my opinion, there is nothing specially good about blended families. What would have been very good was if I had found a normal, decent guy to marry and have kids, and would not have had to go through the hell I was put through, just to realize I should have never have married that guy in the first place. I'm just tring to live a life as good as I can while triyng to acept that the life I planned and wished and worked so hard to have will never be possible for me.
3. What are the hardest parts about blended families and divorce?
The hardest part is raising kids with a man that is not their father. Although my new partner is a much more decent guy than my ex husband ever was, he is not the father of my kids and they were not sweet little babies when he met them, they were pre teens so that makes a lot of difference. He would have raised them differently, and sometimes those differences come up as problems we have to adress. I also had disagreements with the father of my children, in fact I had even more than I have with my new partner, but I knew he loved them as much as I do, and that makes a bit of a difference.
4. If you could go back in time and make one significant change, what would it be?
I would not have married the father of my children. I would never put my dear children through that hell if I knew we where to be separated in the end. Not being able to do that, I would have divorced sooner.
5. Are you religious and/or spiritual? How does this play a role in marriage and divorce?
No, I'm not, so it plays no role.
6. How do you think bipolar plays a part in divorce or blended families? What are things to be cautious of?
Bipolar makes everything more complicated, so I don't dare to comment this one.
7. Do you have tips for someone thinking about divorce or separation? We have two little kids and I'm thinking about doing a trial separation to clear my mind and take a breather from our unhealthy relationship.
If you feel like leaving, do it. If it's not meant to end, you will find yourselves together again. If you are meant to go on with your lifes appart, the sooner the better. When you start considering divorce it's like you are always balancing plus and minuses of the relashionship in your mind and that is not a good way to be in a relashionship. The longer you stay, the more bitterness you collect.