Stepmom Takes Viral Photo Capturing How Beautiful Co-Parenting Can Be

To say that trying to co-parent within a blended family is a challenge is more than a bit of an understatement. But for a family in Columbus, Georgia, it is co-parenting is a testament to how two loving parents can make it work for their child.

On Saturday, Emilee Player posted a photo which perfectly captures the spirit of what co-parenting should be all about.

Player is stepmom to 4-year old Maelyn, who is shown in the above photo in the center of both sets of parents.

“Because of us, I will never believe co-parenting can’t work!” Player captioned the post. “I KNOW through experience it CAN WORK! Choose to do what’s best for your child and everything will just fall into place.”

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158431832845548&set=p.10158431832845548&type=3&theater

As you can see, the couples are all wearing matching jerseys with their respective titles, “daddy,” step mom,” “mommy,” and “step dad,” as they support their little girl at her soccer game. How cute!

So far, the post has gotten over 83,000 shares and has a ton of positive comments by people who love and support the Player’s positive message. Of course, as you can imagine, there were a few who had some negative things to say (many for all the worst reasons).

“[We’ve had] people saying this is not the way things should be and that we are confusing our daughter,” Player tells Parents.com. “In my eyes, what we’re doing should be normal. There’s so much hate in this world these days. Our kids deserve to see the love we have towards one another.”

Player, along with her husband Ricky, and Maelyn’s mom Clara Cazeau and her husband Alex Cazeau, maintain shared custody and have been successfully co-parenting Maelyn for the last three years. In fact, their parenting routine is as normal as any other family.

“My favorite thing co-parenting with Clara is how accepting she’s been of me being the ‘other’ mom,” Player says. “We are really like best friends. You could say we do just about everything together.”

 

There’s no doubt that divorces can be incredibly negative experiences for everyone involved, especially children. People for whatever their reasons sometimes can’t work things out with each other and find it best to separate. However, that does not mean that their children have to suffer and feel pulled between two families. When people decide to focus on loving their child or children over their differences, beautiful things such as what we see here can blossom.

Here’s a video about their inspirational story, please share it with your family and friends.

And remember one love.