Miserable McDonald's

I’m divorced. Every other Friday, I drive my kids half way to their Dad’s house, which is about 3 hours away. We park at a McDonalds in the middle of nowhere and exchange our kids. It is not the highlight of my week, to say the least. No one gets married and thinks “one day, I hope to exchange our children in the McDonald’s parking lot as we attempt to share custody and co-parent from 150 miles away.”

My thoughts about that Friday night exchange have been something eloquent like “this has sucked, does suck, and always will suck.”

As long as I’m thinking those thoughts, it surely does and will.

I’ve made a real attempt in the past month to find a bright spot in all of this. For example:

▶Focus on the fact that I get alone time on the weekend

▶Appreciate some great uninterrupted conversations with my kids while we’re driving (and also sometimes they just watch videos on their phones. Just keeping it real here.)

▶Clean my car before the drive so I can enjoy the drive itself

▶Get a latte and pick a podcast for the way home

All of that helped. Then, this past weekend, we were hanging out in the McDonalds parking lot and my daughter noticed a field behind some trees. She went to check it out and yelled “Mom!! You are going to LOVE this. It’s so beautiful and the perfect light! Come and see this!”

I went around the trees, and saw this. My kids and dog ran up and down and laughed and chased each other and we were all happy.

Right there, behind the Miserable McDonalds, was something beautiful. I’ve been to that McDonalds a hundred times and never noticed it.

Turns out, we find what we’re looking for when we’re ready to see it.