There are so many reasons divorce is awful. Most divorces end in husbands and wives yelling and screaming at each other in a court office with a divorce lawyer and a pretty hefty divorce bill. It can get ugly, joint custody could be involved, and pure hatred and animosity can ensue.
However, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, there are couples that don’t hate each other at all. There are divorced people that both knew they weren’t right for each other and were able to split completely amicably. They might even still get together on weekends, or even help each other out when needed.
The latter is just the case of one man, who, after being divorced form his ex-wife for 28 years, still mows her lawn. Some ex-husband!
Codie McPhate, the man’s daughter, posted about her dad doing such a good deed with a photo of him mowing the lawn on Facebook before it went viral.
“My mom has bad knees, and my step dad works out of town. When my younger siblings questioned, ‘Why is your dad mowing moms lawn?’ I told them, ‘Because, she needed help, and he knew she couldn’t get out here to do it, so he did,’” she wrote in her post.
The dad no longer lives at the house with Codie’s mom. In fact, he selflessly did this favor for her while he was on his very own vacation. She noted that her parents, while divorced for nearly three decades, have always vowed to “choose to be adults and treat each other with respect and compassion.”
While both Codie’s mother and father have both gone on to get remarried, she says that she admires how well all four parents co-parent respectfully together. “This is how lucky I am to have 4 parents who respect each other, and know that at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is showing your children (Even ones that are 32 years old) how to treat people, and how to love your family, no matter how it came together,” she wrote.
There’s a stigma that makes it seem like being divorced is the worst thing in the world, but for some families, it really just works. These two completely understand that at one point, they both loved each other, and even though they’re no longer in that kind of love, that should count for something.
Sometimes parents fear getting divorced when they have children because they worry their children will only see the negative side of it. But Codie’s parents are lucky to have the notion that it doesn’t matter that they’re divorced—to raise respectful children, they just need to be respectful themselves. And that’s exactly what they did.
So what does Codie’s lawn-mowing dad have to say about his good deed? In probably the most humbling response ever, Codie posted: “He wants everyone to know ‘I’m no saint.’ He just wants to show others that you don’t need to act like an angelic pastor on lent, but that we should all choose kindness whenever we can.”
How sweet is this story? Do you know any divorced couples who have remained friendly with each other?