The Unintended Consequences of Marriage Gone Awry

There's no Hallmark card that I know of for divorced dads. No unnecessary sympathies, no pity parties, no support groups I'd ever choose to attend. Like our wives before us, we soldier on.

We are a club, however. A somewhat exclusive one who has landed somewhere we did not expect. The laundry, the cleaning, the tutoring of algebra and the packing of lunches?  Wizened moms call it parenting. We call it survival mode. It is definitely not as easy as it looks.

Especially for my generation, our dads may have loved us, but I don't remember them changing band-aids. Making dinner. Leading class trips. Or holding us when we had stomach flu in the middle of the night. In our newly-minted roles, we have become both mom and dad.

As any parent can attest, every day is Mother's Day and Father's Day. It's just that the moms knew that long before we ever figured it out. 

We suffer the daily indignities, same as our previous wives and new partners and anyone tasked with the role of raising a child. But we also reap rewards we never imagined back when we just played the role of "father." Speaking for myself and every divorced dad I know, we wouldn't have it any other way.