Chapter 8: Delusional Commitments, the Collateral Damage of Divorce and the Superpowers of True Teacher Friends

When my daughter was entering fifth grade and my son was entering second, my then-husband and I finally decided to divorce. We had been moving in and out of the house we lived in together, seeing a couples counselor, and trying desperately to figure out how to salvage our marriage. But somehow, after more than a year of trying and trying and trying, I was doggone tired of failing and failing and failing. We told the kids on the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, just 2 days before they started the school year. We had thought about telling them earlier, but they loved the annual block party that happened in our Norman Rockwell neighborhood that weekend, and we decided in the end that it was better to start their school year with the shock of the divorce than to ruin their block party with it.