Co-Parent, Diane Schroeder, Shares Her Story with TalkingParents
Diane Schroeder and her ex-husband got divorced when their son was two years old. In an exclusive interview with TalkingParents, Schroeder opens up about the communication challenges she and her co-parent faced post-divorce.
“There were a lot of hurt feelings, so we ended up going back and forth a lot with text messages and sometimes through e-mail. So, that’s when we decided we had to come up with something to make it more productive for us and for our son.”
Schroeder says her divorce attorney recommended TalkingParents around the time she and her ex were going through mediation because their communication was so unhealthy.
“Instantly, I felt like it helped a lot. I describe TalkingParents like using a communication filter. I knew that if a message was in there, I could decide whether to open it now or later depending on where I was at emotionally.”
A long-time user, Schroeder says TalkingParents has helped her co-parenting situation tremendously over the last nine years.
“TalkingParents has improved my life and my child’s life because I’m able to have better communication with his dad. So, it’s less hostile, less anxiety filled, and it’s really smoothed out a lot of the tension and conflict we had before. Now that my son is almost a tween, we’ve created this new normal for us and I’ve found that I’m much happier and calmer, which translates to him being happier and calmer. My co-parent and I even tried to stop using TalkingParents like a year and a half ago, but it didn’t work out. It’s just easy and it keeps us both accountable.”
You can watch Schroeder’s full testimonial video here. Her interview is one of many to be released by TalkingParents in their ongoing “Real Co-Parents” campaign. The initiative seeks to tell the stories of real co-parents who use TalkingParents in their everyday lives. Real Co-Parents is one of several ways that TalkingParents continues to provide resources to parents in the hopes of making a positive impact on families.