You Got Out. Your Kids Didn't. How to Survive the Guilt of Co-Parenting After Divorce
About this episode
This episode discusses the guilt of co-parenting after divorce with insights from Lyerly Spongberg, a divorce coach and co-parenting specialist.
You did the hardest thing you've ever done — you left. And somehow, that's not where the guilt ends; for so many divorced moms, it's where a whole new kind of guilt begins. If you've ever lain awake wondering how you can call yourself a good mother when your kids are still living, at least part-time, inside the very dynamic you found the strength to walk away from, this episode of Divorce Happens is for you. Olivia sits down with Lyerly Spongberg, a Certified ADR Divorce Coach, Pre-Mediation Coach, and Co-Parenting Specialist and founder of Step Up With Lyerly, for an honest, nuanced conversation about one of the most under-discussed emotional realities of co-parenting after divorce: the guilt of getting out when your children didn't. Spongberg brings more than professional training to this conversation — she brings twenty-plus years of lived experience, having divorced in her thirties and later rebuilt a blended family of six children as a stepmother to four. That dual perspective, expert and survivor, shapes everything she offers here, starting with a distinction she says changes the way divorced parents talk to themselves: guilt is “I did something bad,” while shame is “I am…
More episodes of Divorce Happens
- A Divorce Coach's 5-Step Framework for Staying Grounded When Everything Feels Urgent
- Hey Olivia, Why Do I Keep Having Sex Dreams About the Husband I'm Divorcing?
- Managing Triggering Communications & Reclaiming Your Power During Divorce with Family Mediator & Parenting Coordinator Laura Lorber
- Preparing Your Nervous System for Divorce: What No One Tells You Before You Walk Into That Room
- The Happenstance: The Hidden Cost of Having a Husband
- Co-Parenting Coaching After Divorce: Building the System That Keeps Your Kids Steady
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