Category: Doing Divorce

Angela Dunne provides practical advice based on real examples of what she and her clients have faced through the transition of divorce.

Doing Divorce

Angela Dunne provides practical advice based on real examples of what she and her clients have faced through the transition of divorce.

Universal Good

January 15, 2026 / Doing Divorce

“He is a well-known athlete. He came to every meeting with a complete entourage of bodyguards, accountants, and managers. I advised him that he would need to leave said entourage at home for the child support hearing in front of the judge. The day of the hearing, he arrived with his entourage and finally agreed to leave them in the hallway – out of the courtroom. I then eyed the diamond encrusted watch on his thick wrist. I told him he would need to take off the $75,000 watch if I was going to proceed with advocating for a lowered

New Beginnings

January 8, 2026 / Doing Divorce

I love new beginnings. I delight in shaking the Etch-A-Sketch clear and starting over. I appreciate every month flipping the calendar to a fresh start. I enjoy crawling into bed when freshly laundered sheets await. I particularly enjoy the start of a new year when I spend days preparing pages of goals for the upcoming year. Well, a divorce can change that. During a divorce, every single layer of life is changed. And I mean – every. single. one. New beginnings are everywhere. Although in the middle of life-altering upheaval, they don’t feel like new beginnings – the just feel

A Season for Strategies

December 18, 2025 / Doing Divorce

I stitched every inch of this holiday advent calendar. I could spend an equivalent number of hours delighting in it as I did creating it. However, if I had to pull from the pocket the felt toy from each of the days I would not have my daughters with me in December, the calendar would be only half-filled. That old familiar frustration of having to share my daughters with their dad during the holidays stings anew. In 7 years of sharing holidays, I confess it has not become as easy as I had hoped. In fact, for me, it is

Turning the Page

December 11, 2025 / Doing Divorce

It is too dramatic to say I felt disbelief staring at my sixteen-year-old daughter’s handwritten words. But it was certainly on the spectrum of stunned. In a rare and fleeting moment of one-on-one time with my busy teenager, she was sharing with me the journal she had been tasked with keeping for her high school writing class. I read the words again: “For me, the holiday season has been hard. With having divorced parents, I don’t think it will ever be easy. There is always guilt when leaving one parent on Christmas morning to go to the other, knowing that the parent

Social Media Missteps

December 4, 2025 / Doing Divorce

I will not likely ever forget the pit in my stomach. It was in the wee hours of the morning when sleep evaded me. After a recent break-up, my thoughts were not yet managed, nor healed. I rolled over in bed to open my laptop and before I knew it there he was in a tuxedo looking better than ever. A tear pricked and my stomach rolled as I tried to process something that I simply could not. How was he smiling a few weeks after our break up when I hadn’t even been able to attempt that feat? Where

Grateful

November 20, 2025 / Doing Divorce

Light me up a pumpkin spiced candle, let my feet crunch as I walk over brightly colored leaves, and zip me into a parka when the fall wind nips at my nose. I love all that is fall. I love this season, and in particular, this week of Thanksgiving, where with it brings reflections on gratitude and abundance. During times of transition or grief, it may be difficult to feel gratitude or see the silver linings, but perhaps take pause and really look. Why I Am Grateful for my Divorce Did I just write that subtitle? Did it just get

The Last Thing

November 13, 2025 / Doing Divorce

“I agree with the parenting plan for our son and the child support amount.” Pause. “I agree with receiving half of the retirement accounts and home equity.” Pause. “I agree with how the debt has been distributed and it is fair.” Pause. “But I want the snow blower.” If I had a snow blower for every time negotiations in a divorce action came to a screeching halt over an item of personal property, I could pass them around like Oprah at Christmas. “You get a snow blower, and you get a snow blower – snow blowers for everyone!” Although it

A Season of Scared

November 6, 2025 / Doing Divorce

I live in constant fear. Walking on eggshells, whispering my first words in a conversation and bracing myself when I hear the door shut from their arrival have become the norm. It started about 2 years ago when my oldest turned 13. My household now includes a 15 ½ year old and a 13 year old – thus the reason for my perpetual state of panic. I worry about them driving. I worry about what is happening on their phones. I worry about why they don’t talk to me. I worry about when they do talk to me. I worry

Hallowed Holidays

October 29, 2025 / Doing Divorce

On Halloween night I sat on my sofa with a ho and a hum. This was the first year I did not spend part of the trick or treat festivities with my daughters. My eldest goes with friends now and needs no help with costume assembly. I didn’t even see her this day. My youngest still came to my house so I could curl her hair, but then off she went at 4:30 to her dad’s house to put on her costume and laugh into the night gathering candy. Seven years of co-parenting and I still hate holidays without my

Fear and Finances: Part 3 in a series on Domestic Violence

October 23, 2025 / Doing Divorce

Kirsten’s life tragically ended in violence. I continue this series by looking at another, and all too common, form of domestic abuse. It seemed reasonable in the beginning – supportive even. He said he would handle the finances once they moved in together. He earned a bit more than her so she trusted that he would be fiscally responsible. When they joined households, they also joined finances. She provided all of her accounts, passwords, and trust. “Why did you spend $123 at Target?” he demanded to know. She recited her purchases confused over his anger. “You need to follow the

« Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next »