Co-Parenting.

I'm curious to know if anyone does things with there ex and children; holidays, birthdays, special events, etc. I have 50 / 50 custody and for the last couple months the ex and I have taken the children out together a few times. There has never been an issue while together with the kids, we co-parent rather well together and everyone seems to enjoy themselves. I've heard a few stories from fellows at work who had started to do the same thing, almost around the same time within the separation as I am now. One or two are still able to do it, while the others said eventually they had to stop doing it as it was no good for 'future relationships'. Which is understandable. This weekend was sort of the same for myself, things were beginning to be 'too comfortable' and I started to question the long term benefit of doing things together like we were. Birthday parties I can see doing joint together, but holidays and things like going to the park, pool or other events I'm not too sure do any good for the kids or myself. With the children, I've been keeping an eye on there behavior with the frequency of joint activities. It really hasn't created any noticeable issues and how they are coping with the divorce. Between the ex and I, we are able to discuss concerns without much problem. When it comes to dental issues, illnesses and the sorts, she is willing to take them to appointments if need be and has even offered to watch the kids for me if I wanted to get back into my rec ball hockey league. This weekend was a lot of contact between each other, as our daughter had dance rehearsal and a recital, plus our son had soccer and we took them to the country fare. It was my weekend with the kids, she took our boy to soccer while I took our daughter to dance. So I'm rather pleased we can work together to do this and I'm appreciative. I did tell her yesterday that I felt it would be best to take a step back from doing so many things together with the kids. She expressed the boundaries of 'getting the divorce over with and having a 'parental relationship' with me months ago, boundaries I plan on respecting. To me though, things have started to creep beyond that (subconscious or not) and unless the boundaries are said to be otherwise, I have no interest in causing issues down the road. For everyone's sake. She did tell me she understood and even apologized today if she had done something to upset me, which she didn't need to do but I plan on leaving it at that. I feel no need to be rude to her or make mountains out of molehills but I believe it's best to cut the small talk down quite a bit. As I said, it's starting to become too comfortable. If anyone has any experiences in this type of thing, I'd like to hear about it. Whether it was a lot of joint events for a while and then it had to stop, or if you're still able to do so and how it's been working out.

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