Welcome to another episode of the Divorce Survival Guide podcast, where we have real, honest, smart,

and sometimes even hilarious conversations about co-parenting, separation, and divorce, and all that goes along with that.

I'm Kate Anthony, your Divorce Survival Guide, certified life and relationship coach,

and happily divorced mom, who helps women decide if they should stay in or leave their marriages

and then guides them through the process one step at a time.

Hey, everyone.

Thank you so much for tuning in. I am really grateful for your listenership and your time.

I hope everyone had a good mother's day. I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you about mine,

because I want to hold it up as what's possible in the future. As many of you know, my marriage to my ex was a

goddamn nightmare. It was toxic and often nasty and it was just a really unhappy and unhealthy

marriage all around. And our first few mothers' day were they were weird. We would have brunch or he'd bring me flowers. And, you know, my ex has

always gone out of his way to acknowledge me as a mother. But over time, as he was dating and

later married his wife, I felt like I really got shafted on Mother's Day. One year, he had my son, and he didn't have my son call me.

One year, his wife, who isn't the biological mom of any of his kids, but has definitely

taken on a lot as a stepmom of two of my ex's children, she got a huge bouquet of flowers,

and I got nothing. One year he texted me,

Happy Mother's Day at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And one year I was coming home. I had been

in New York and San Francisco for almost two weeks. I was in New York for the death of my

oldest friend in the world and San Francisco for an advanced

coach training course.

And as I sat in the airport on Saturday night before Mother's Day, waiting for my delayed flight

to finally come home, I was utterly exhausted, bereft and depleted.

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