8 Lessons I Learned From My Alternative Parents

People have a hard time wrapping their head around my parents' relationship, because it’s pretty unusual to meet divorced people who are also best friends. And by best friends, I mean really best friends. My mom, my dad, and my dad’s girlfriend went to Napa, CA, together for my father’s 50th birthday. My dad took my mom and I to Hawaii for her 40th birthday. When my dad broke off an engagement, he moved in with my mom and I for a few months. For me, this was normal and fairly logical — just because they didn’t want to be married anymore, didn’t mean there was any reason to not be in each other’s lives. Early on, my parents made it clear that there is no “normal” when it comes to love — that there is no golden standard for relationships and that you don’t need to be in love to love each other.