Spending the past 3 ½ years giving divorce advice on Divorced Girl Smiling doesn’t make me an expert, just a person who got

I can’t remember who it was, but someone once said to me, “There are five people who will determine what happens in your

If you are caught in the grip of this self-sacrificing cascade, please, cease and deist. Endless self-scrutiny will get you nowhere and in fact will prolong and intensify your hurt.

You are all alone during your parenting time. There is no partner there to bounce things off of.

Frustration can make a person really, really angry. Infuriated. Mad. Bonkers! So, if you are feeling this way, what are you

One would think that after spending almost 20 years living in downtown Chicago it would be unlikely that I fall victim to a scam. Not the case. A couple weeks ago, I took my kids to the Cubs game. It was a perfect weather day, we had great seats, the game was nail biting, and the hot dogs delicious. Everyone was happy.

"It took a long time, but I have finally found a way to embrace being alone."

Hating your ex is toxic. It is toxic to your kids, to your professional life, to your romantic relationships and mostly to yourself. Hating long enough will kill you. It's a really, really bad disease.

Are you a self-righteous married person? I was. I thought (and sometimes said) many of those things about people around me getting divorced. I was scared of divorce. I needed people around me to stay married and keep the hope alive that marriage is a good thing; that it can work out.

My last piece of advice is, don't let the divorce make you bitter. I am of the opinion that not being bitter is something you need to nip in the bud early in the divorce process. In other words, catch it now before it becomes habit

Navigating a divorce is hard. It takes time to get over the initial anger, pain, and hurt, but then you have a big decision to make. Are you going to stay in the world of anger and hurt or are you going to try to move through the change with honesty and grace?