Co-Parenting in Action: The story of the Printer

This photo is of my ex’s printer, in my front entrance.  The story of how it got there is why I am so grateful for my ex and his willingness to co-parent as reasonably and lovingly as possible, for the sake of the kids.

Last week, one of my daughter’s came home from school and announced that she had a project she HAD TO FINISH that night.  To complete the project she needed to print off a few things. 

Doh.  My printer has been out of ink for AGES.  So, printing anything off wasn’t going to be as easy as pie.

So, I tell her this, and she immediately says – we can just go to Daddy’s place and print the pictures off there.

:)  Not wanting to put words into my ex’s mouth (..like presuming he’d say no and that we should just go out to buy new printer cartridges), I figure I’ll txt him and see if this is possible.  Cause I figured it probably was the easiest way to get things printed. 

Since he isn’t home from work yet, he says – No, to giving me the password to his computer, which I can understand - haha! :)   

However, he suggests we take his printer over to my house and use it to print whatever we want.

Which we proceed to do. 

Did I mention we have keys to the other’s house?  It is just the only way we could survive, or we’d have to get way better at never having the kids want something from the other’s house and having to go pick it up at the last minute!

Anyways, back to the printer. 

My daughter and I COULD NOT get the printer to print at my place!!!   Don’t ask me why but it just wasn’t working – we were both so frustrated!  So, my daughter was txting her dad, and he was trouble shooting for us, from work. 

After an hour of this printer frustration, we decided to turn everything off, had dinner, and then turned everything back on…and by some miracle it fuckin’ printed!!  Oh My God - YEAH!!

And with that, we unplugged the printer and set it by the door, ready for it to head back over to my ex’s next time we go.

Thinking back on this whole silliness, it struck me just how gracious my ex was through the whole thing. 

He could have told me I was nuts and that I should just go pick up some printer cartridges and to forget printing anything at his place. 

He could have been too busy at work to bother helping with possible solutions, to get the printer to work at my place.

His overarching goal was the same as mine. 

To make parenting to our daughter as seamless as possible. 

And so when we did go back to his place the next day, to pick up my son’s baseball shirt before his practice, I made sure to put the printer back – all plugged in, exactly as I had found it. 

And this is what co-parenting continues to do for us.  It pushes our perceived boundaries.  And makes us more aware of the reasons behind your actions. 

I try to lead with love, if at all possible. :)  I hope you do too.

Wishing you all the best, 

Lisa 

PS: What is one example of a time you stretched yourself farther than you thought, for the love of your kids?  

PSS: Take my new Quiz: 'Are You as Happy As You Could be after Separation/Divorce?'