Hey folks, short story to catch up, I have a daughter 7 and a son 5, me and thier mom were married for 10 years, she worked 12 hour days EOW while we were married and I had the kids from the day they came home up till we divorced the first time (will get to that in a min) when they were 5 and 3 by myself, having them alone is nothing new to me. Me and X divorced like I said when they were 3 and 5, at that time we did 50/50 week on week off with the kids, that went on for about a year, we actually remarried, dated about 6 months and were in the same house about 6 months when she left the second time, we divorced again, I now have sole custody of the kids, she gets them Monday and Thursday's after school till 7:30 and EOW. She has been out of the house for about a year now.


Yesterday I took off work to attend my daughters school Christmas party (2nd grade) and she had a note to Santa that she had written in class asking him for toys and such, but she also asked him for a family. I was taken back, but said nothing in the school. When we got home I asked her about it, she immediately started crying, said she just wanted to spend time together with me and her mother, I asked her if she understood that me and her mother were divorced, but that we are still her family, and that we both still loved her very much, she said yes but ran to her room crying. I dropped it at that point.

I haven't really explained a lot to her during all of this over the last 3 years, she was 5 at the first split, she seemed to adapt fairly well, and so far this time she is happy the majority of the time, seems adjusted, she knows what days she will see her mother and is excited about it, and when her mother brings her back to my house she is all smiles and gives me a big hug every time, but she is bothered by the lack of us all being together, has anyone had to discuss this with their children of that age? Any advice on how to go about it?