Skip to content

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.

Resolve to Celebrate

I weigh myself.  Ugh.  Add that to the list of resolutions.  I stare into my messy closet. Ugh.  Add that to the list of resolutions.  I can count the number of vegetables in my house on two fingers.  Ugh.  Add that to the list of resolutions.  And I keep going until my list is in the double digits and my energy is deflated.  I start my new year off eating a donut and putting Christmas décor in my closet to put away later. “A new year.  A new start.  A new you.”  The predictable and tired advertisements come rolling in
Read More

One Little Word

Joy. Calm.  Beyond.  These words start to fill up my social media feeds at the first of the year when people are apt to choose “one little word” to set a specific intention or provide inspiration for the year ahead.  Some chose companion words to provide subtext for a goal:  grit, glory, gumption.  Over the years, I’ve had some of my words gifted to me in bracelets by friends as a reminder to keep focus. What if this year your one little word is “divorce?”  What if you have been struggling in your marriage for years and this is the
Read More

Crabby Patty Consequences: From Cocoa to Cops

I was so impressed.  My youngest daughter brought five of her friend’s home after school to start winter break with a secret Santa gift exchange.  They arrived to my gentle warning to be quiet and respectful for the first hour while my office was still in business.  I barely heard a peep.  I was so proud of my youngest for following directions (for once) and making this small party such a pleasant experience. Come five o’clock I picked up pizza, brought out grapes and drinks, and praised the group for their excellent behavior.  Soon I was filling up disposable hot
Read More

The Christmas Crash

I remember a year I had big expectations and along with them, a big discovery when they were decidedly dashed.  My daughters, my mom, and I, set off on what I declared to be a great family adventure.  We were going to romantically tromp through a tree farm and cut down our own magical Christmas tree.  And we did… sort of.  In reality, the trees were pre-cut and Sophia sighed at the lack of snow on the ground.  We tried our best to ignore the frosty wind making our faces and fingers hurt while we searched for the perfect tree. 
Read More

A Season for Strategies

As a child, I loved opening up the chocolate-filled advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas.  However I did not love the part about having to take turns with my siblings and thus only getting to gobble down a chocolate every third day.  Now as an adult, I am feeling the same frustration show up in the face of having to share my daughters with their dad during the holidays. In this season, I find the time is starting to slip further away.  Not only do I have shared parenting time with my former spouse, but now my
Read More

The Truth About Timing

I sat with a mess of memories in front of me. Reflections from our fishing trips, vacations to the beach, our wedding, the births of our babies – all in shiny ornaments to be boxed away with the holidays now over. The tree ornaments were a reflection of our collective identity as a couple. We had been compiling this collection for nearly a decade spent together. The usual post-holiday sadness set upon me.  But this year there was so much more – I felt desolation.  I was aware my marriage was failing.  It was hard, empty, and lonely.  Our moments
Read More

Hallowed Holidays

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
Read More

Scared

Halloween is one of my favorite nights of the year.  Particularly when it lands on a cool, windy evening and you can hear the leaves crunching and rustling underfoot as the children laugh up and down the sidewalks before shouting “trick or treat” at doorsteps.  I enjoy the occasional whiffs through the air of burning pumpkin and the taste of the crispy Kit Kat that I inevitably steal from one of my daughters’ treat bags by the end of the night. What I do not enjoy about Halloween is the feeling of being scared.  I would no more willingly walk
Read More

A Cinderella Story

I was hovered over the toilet scrubbing with my magic wand – the toilet brush.  Sophia, then 6, paused at the top of the stairs next to the bathroom door and peered in at me.  Sheer delight spread across her face.  “Mom! Are we playing Cinderella?” she asked with enthusiasm.  I wiped a bit of sweat from my forehead, “What??”  She seemed as confused as I was.  “No, I am not playing Cinderella.  I am cleaning the bathroom.”  “Oh,” she sighed dejectedly and walked away to her room. I sat back on the white tile floor and leaned my back
Read More

Lay Me Down

The mood was somber.  Every Monday morning we take 15 minutes to check in with each other.  All of my co-workers gather and we look at the week ahead.  This week we all woke to the horror that happened in Las Vegas Sunday night.  Our hearts were heavy and our minds distracted as we felt ourselves lapsing into the “what if” questions that come to the forefront when facing tragedy.  One of our paralegals had been in Vegas the weekend prior.  All of us have been to an outdoor concert or public event.  None of us know whether we, or
Read More

Archives