I pray that I will one day have a successful marriage with beautiful healthy children. In addition, I pray that I will grow old with my husband. However, should the marriage fail, I pray that I will put aside my hurt feelings and do what is in the best interest of my children. I’m thinking about this now as I just got back from my niece’s 3rd birthday party. My younger sister had the “diva in training” with her first husband. My sister has a rocky relationship with her first husband and as such, he wasn’t invited to the party. Not sure I agree, but it was my sister’s decision. In any event, midway through the party I heard my sister talking on the phone in a raised voice. In that I knew she was talking to her ex-husband and that others could hear, I took the phone from her and went into a closed room. I probably shouldn’t have gotten into the middle of things, but as I’ve had to deal with the asshat since my sister was a freshman in high school, I felt like I could butt in. He wanted to pick up my niece in what would have been the middle of the party. I tried to advice against doing so, but he’s a hot heat and he said he was coming. So for the rest of the night, I was on pins and needles thinking that he would arrive and cause a scene. Luckily that never happened. But the whole thing made me want to drink. Unfortunately for me, my sister has a dry house. This situation as well as others that I’ve heard about with other friends made me promise myself that if I found myself in a similar situation, I would do what was in the best interest of my child — that being to have both parents at the celebration; particularly if the other parent is trying to play an active role in my child’s life. I know it’s difficult, but in the end, I think that would have been the right thing to do.