Mediate Michigan

Your divorce may have been a drawn-out, dramatic mess but if you want your kids to come out unscathed, your co-parenting relationship with your ex needs to be anything but.

So how do you make nice with your ex when it’s the last thing you want to do? Below, HuffPost Divorce readers share the one word of advice they’d give fellow divorcees struggling to forge a working parenting relationship with their ex.

1. “Co-parent. Learn to look at your ex as a business partner. And if you feel the need to vent about him or her, vent to your friends and not to your kids. The kids’ feelings always have to come first.”

via 11 Things All Divorced Parents Need To Hear.

A Manhattan mom is fed up with all the delays in her three-year child-custody battle — so she’s suing the judge.

Public-relations exec Maggie Rhee Karn claims in her $10 million federal lawsuit that Manhattan Family Court Referee Marva Burnett has been stringing out the case for more than three years, costing the mom more than $200,000 in legal fees while allowing her ex-husband to control major decisions about their 9-year-old’s schooling and religion

.The Catholic mother’s case against her Jewish ex, Kenneth Karn, a financier, has taken more than 1,200 days — even though state law requires custody proceedings to be complete within 90 days.

via Mom sues judge over 3-year custody battle | New York Post.

Appellate judges in IL have ruled in favor of Madison and St. Clair counties in a lawsuit contesting fees used for neutral-site exchanges in child custody cases.

Since 2000, Illinois has allowed counties to charge a filing fee on all divorce cases to fund neutral-site custody exchange centers. When visitation exchanges between divorced parents become disruptive, these sites — staffed by counselors and guards — allow one parent to drop the child off and the other parent to pick the child up without seeing each other.

via Appellate Court: Neutral site custody exchange fees constitutional | Metro-east news | News Democrat.

Divorce mediation certainly won’t fix a marriage, but it can fix the situation when it comes to moving on solo. If you’re like countless Americans over the age of 50 contemplating divorce, mediation makes the process bearable – and affordable compared to “lawyering up.”

via Mediators for divorce in La Jolla, CA talk about separation post-50 | La Jolla Light.

There is nothing quite like falling in love. It’s a complete and total bonus when your relationship includes little ones you can fall in love with, too!

But being a stepmom is not for the faint-hearted. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say being a stepmom is one of the most under-appreciated and stressful situations a woman can find herself in.

Here are some gems for you:

• You are not the kid’s “new” mom, but you can be a part of the kid’s support system while you befriend their real mom.

via How to Be the Best Stepmom Ever | Honoree Corder.