Tina and Angie got home from Tasha’s party about an hour earlier. Tasha is a friend in the military. The party was her send off as she was returning to active duty after a being home on leave for the past month.

By now both Tina and Angie had taken their baths and had a snack. Now Tina was putting Angie to bed. Once she gets her settled Tina climbs into bed with her daughter and holds her close.
Both Bette and Tina have gotten into the habit of encouraging open communication with Angie. If something is troubling her they always take time to talk it through. Their favorite time to have these special talks is just before bedtime. If she doesn’t want to talk or if there is nothing specific going on they read a bedtime story. After the day they’d just had Tina felt the need for a talk with her precocious six year old.

Tina and Bette also try to be consistent with their parenting styles so she doesn’t start pitting one against the other to get her way. Angie is a very well-behaved little girl. She has an even temperament but like any child she is prone to have tantrums every now and then.

She loves both her mom’s very much. They’ve done a great job of teaching her to embrace diversity and understand the concept of different types of families. And though she’s adjusted to them living apart and being shuffled back and forth she can’t help but wish that they could be the type of family that all lived in the same house.

Her parents separated when she was only six months old and after two unsuccessful tries at reconciling they finally settled into an amicable friendship that revolves around shared custody of their daughter. Currently Tina has Angie from Sunday night to Wednesday night and Bette picks her up from school on Thursday afternoon and keeps her until Sunday evening. Sunday was family day so they usually spent it doing at least one joint activity. At first this arrangement was fun because they spoiled her so much. Sometimes she talked them into getting her two of everything so she would have the same things at both homes. Now they are getting a bit more pragmatic. There are some things that they shuffle back and forth and some things that she just leaves at one home or the other.