This is lovely.
Hayley Booth is often asked how she manages to co-parent so easily.
Between herself, her husband, her ex, and his new girlfriend, there’s a lot of adults looking to bring up one child.
It wouldn’t be at all out of the ordinary for Hayley to struggle with the arrangement, but according to her, she doesn’t.
And the reason?
“We just love our daughter.”
The mum-of-one took to Facebook to share a photo of herself and her ex’s new girlfriend, Dakota Pitman, bringing Hayley’s daughter Rachel to school.
In the post, she said that “no child deserves to be tossed around back and forth, used as a bargaining chip, or to be put in the middle of any adult drama.”
“She didn’t choose to be born, and she certainly never chose for her parents to get divorced. Why would we make her life any harder by making her choose which set of parents to love?”
Hayley also said that her daughter calls Dakota ‘Mommy’ and that this doesn’t bother her because, in her eyes, Dakota “is her mommy.”
“She is there for her always, she takes care of her, she plays with her, she teaches her life lessons and how she should behave, she gives her hugs and kisses goodnight, she does everything any mother would do.
But most of all she loves her like she is her own. It takes a very special woman to take a child that they didn’t give birth to, under their wing and become their mother. “
Hayley also had a message for those who might refuse to let their child be a part of their ex’s family.
Granted, of course, that that family is willing to love the child.
According to her, acting that way is “selfish,” and it’s better to “…put the petty little things aside, to raise your child to be the amazing human being they are meant to be. ”
“If you are lucky enough for your ex to have a woman who loves YOUR child or children like their own, and one who helps raise them and shape them, why would you not allow them to call a woman they love mommy?
Why would you put your child in the position to feel like they have to choose who they love?”
Hayley concluded her post by saying that co-parenting is possible, because she does it every day.
