A Holiday Gift for Your Ex-Spouse
Let’s remember that the Holiday Season is a time not just for giving and receiving, but for forgiving too. So, if you decide that you might want to consider getting a gift for an ex-spouse, no lumps of coal or books with titles like “Act Like a Human for Dummies.” If you do it, refrain from gag gifts or something that can be misconstrued.
A surefire way to make it easier to be charitable to a soon-to-be former spouse is to eschew a confrontational divorce. Our firm is one of the leading collaborative law and/or mediation firms in the New York metropolitan area, and there are firms like ours all over the country. All you need to do is to put in key words like “collaborative divorce” and “mediation” and the name of your community or metropolitan area into an Internet search engine. In no time flat you will find legal practitioners who subscribe to these less acrimonious and many times less expensive methods of dissolving a marriage.
For those already divorced, the question still lingers. Should you get your former spouse a Holiday gift? Especially in these economic times, you should keep in mind that not all gifts cost money. If you are the non-custodial parent, you can send your former spouse a card with a few IOU’s included. Things like:
· IOU an extra weekend with the kids if you need to do something special.
· IOU a series of thank you’s for being a great parent.
· IOU an extra holiday free at your choosing.
· IOU a laundry free week.
· IOU a night free of cooking, where I will either cook or have a meal delivered.
The point is to be creative and try to turn the Holiday Season into what it’s supposed to be - a time to give and to show some extra caring to those in our lives (including, of course, your ex-spouse).
If you are the custodial parent, keep in mind that your former spouse is probably a bit lonely during the Holidays and might welcome a dinner invite or an extra night or two with the kids.
Whatever you decide, the Holidays are supposed to be warm and welcoming. Even after a divorce.
