Denver Colorado Family Law Blog

One outgrowth of living and working from home more or less 24/7 is that some families have been able to slow down and reconnect with each other. School activities and sports are on hold, while puzzles and board games have made a comeback.

Conversely, all this together time may be too much for some, particularly for those new to cohabitating, new to marriage or are home with young children for the first time. Whether the relationship is a long one or relatively new, there may need to be some additional steps to maintain a healthy home life.

Mother’s Day for families with divorced parents can be a delicate dance. Regardless of the state of the parents’ relationship, mothers still deserve all the appropriate forms of recognition as the mother of your children. In the past, the ex-spouse could encourage the children to recognize the importance of their mother in their lives, and while handmade gifts are cherished, you may even have to do some shopping for such common Mother’s Day gifts as a favorite sweet, a spa visit, flowers or some other gift.

Participating in or at least helping organize the logistics of these are an excellent opportunity to show the children that the family is still a unit even if the parents live apart. The gestures also often are appreciated by the mother and can help strengthen the working relationship among co-parents.

Many families have enjoyed their uninterrupted time together in quarantine. However, there is a growing concern that the stress of the times mixed with tenuous relationships and tight quarters could lead to an uptick in domestic violence in homes not safe for spouses or children. This is based on data in France (which has seen a 30% jump in reports of domestic violence) and other countries around the world as well as reports from New York, Washington, DC, and San Francisco.

This has led the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to speak out regarding the risk during the quarantine. Moreover, pop star Rihanna and Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey have each donated millions of dollars to raise awareness and support programs that serve victims of domestic violence.

Marriage is no longer what it once was in decades past. Couples would start dating in the teens or twenties and then get married once they got a job or graduated from school. They would then go through many changes as kids, work and life offered a series of hurdles or opportunities. If that first marriage did not survive, many would get back on the horse, sometimes again and again. Now people or couples wait longer to marry, and some even opt to form a committed partnership rather than a marriage.

These options to wait or not buy into the concept may be trendy, but there are still plenty of people who like the idea of remarrying – ideally, if and when the right person comes along. Everyone has their priorities in a desirable partner, but it is more about the individual than the partner.