The Reason These Divorced Parents Take Photos Together Will Break Your Heart

From Redbook

A divorce can be painstaking for kids, but it doesn’t have to be – just ask co-parents Victoria and Adam Baldwin. Facebook page LoveWhatMatters shared their decision to keep up their tradition of taking a family portrait post-divorce. Why? Because even if they’re not married anymore, they’re both still parents to their kid.

“The top two photos were taken when Adam and I were married,” Victoria explained in the post. “The bottom two, taken nearly one year and over two years after our divorce was finalized. We are not in love, we don’t always agree, we’re not best friends, sometimes we don’t even like one another. But you know what we are? We are forever connected because of our beautiful, smart, kind, compassionate, funny son. We RESPECT one another. We remember that neither of our roles as parents take precedence over the other – neither one of us are any more important to the life of our son. We BOTH need to be there, we BOTH deserve quality time and quality memories with him. Neither of us blame one another for the direction our relationship took. We do not place blame on one another, and we certainly don’t place blame in the presence of our son.”

“Adam and I are not perfect co-parents, but we made a deal when we got divorced, to put our son first and to value the richness that we each bring to his life, for different reasons,” she explained. “So yes, we still have a family portrait taken, and I still pay good money to have the images printed, framed, and placed in our son’s bedroom; he may not grow up with parents who live in the same house… but he will grow up to see respect, kindness, empathy, compassion, perseverance, flexibility, and even sacrifice being modeled by both of his parents and he will know it is possible to fall out of love but never fall apart.”

Commenters were divided: While many thought the photos were beautiful and representative of what a split should look like, one went so far to call it a “farce.” Another said it was “unnecessary,” because you could just as easily take candid photos (like at events you’re all at together), while also raising the question of what will happen when new romantic partners enter the (metaphorical) picture.

The reality, of course, is that all divorces look different, and maybe this is just a very rare case of a blissfully friendly breakup, and, hey, to each his or her own when it comes to how they want to take family portraits. And it’s comforting to know that there are parents that get along and respect each other and at least want to demonstrate symbolically that their kid is priority number one – which, no matter the circumstance of the divorce, should always be true.

But you can obviously still co-parent successfully, attend gatherings together joyously, respect one another, take pride in your kids’ accomplishments, and console him or her without taking photos like this. You don’t need a photo to show kids that they will always come first and that you love them unconditionally.

(h/t Popsugar)

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