Good point, Steve! My experience has shown me that love means you constantly have to say you're sorry! Living with another person takes work even if there is shared love, trust and admiration. Although neither my partner or I ever intend to hurt each other, there are times when I inadvertantly hurt her feelings by letting something insensitive fall out of my mouth without thinking first. I get lots of practice saying "I'm sorry" because I do love.

To say that the best thing a person can do for their children is to demonstrate a long-lived, consistent loving relationship for the child's other parent rings so true for me. I think this example being set helps prepare them for their own future adult relationships. I think about my sister who is very, very close with her daughter to the point of excluding her own husband in the household. This, to me, is doing the child a disservice in so many ways. How will her daughter be ready to establish intimacy when she has never seen it, when just the opposite is presented to her as the norm?

Children learn what they live. I hope my children will learn from my example of dedication, respect and commitment to their other mother.

Rose