How on Earth do exes coparent in peace?

Is it really possible to befriend your ex's new spouse?

Divorced parents.
(Image credit: Gary Waters / Alamy Stock Photo)

I like to think of myself as fairly magnanimous. Generous of spirit. Warm hearted and welcoming when need be. But I'm going to be honest with you: If I had to walk my precious toddler to his first day of preschool alongside his father's girlfriend — and my child was calling us both "Mommy" — it would be hard for me not to claw her with my fingernails. And, depending how quickly I could get it off my foot, maybe pummel her with the heel of my right shoe.

But that's exactly what happened (the dual-Mommy part, not the crazed-maiming part) in Oklahoma recently, when Hayley Booth, 26, and her ex-husband's new wife escorted Booth's 4-year-old daughter to day one of class. Booth's social media post about it went viral: "If you are lucky enough for your ex to have a woman who loves YOUR child or children like their own, and one who helps raise them and shape them, why would you not allow them to call a woman they love mommy?" Booth wrote in a post whose popularity landed her on the Today show and in Us Weekly magazine. "Don't tell me that peaceful co-parenting isn't possible, because it is. I do it everyday."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Starshine Roshell

Starshine Roshell is a veteran journalist and award-winning columnist whose work has appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, New York Post and Westways magazine. She is the author of Keep Your Skirt On, Wife on the Edge and Broad Assumptions.