Splitsville: How Did You Introduce Your Kids To Your New Significant Other?

Welcome to Splitsville. This weekly column will focus on parenting after a divorce, break-up or one-night stand that didn’t end like a Katherine Heigl movie.

My husband and I started dating almost immediately after my daughter’s first birthday. In fact, one of the reasons I agreed to go out with him was because I was impressed that he remembered when her birthday was, after I had mentioned it in the briefest of conversations a couple weeks before. His thoughtfulness changed my, “I’m never going to date anyone ever again, I’m just going to be a single mom,” to “Maybe I could go on a date once a month when my daughter visits her dad.” I know, I was a crazy lady back then.

Anyways, it still took months for me to agree to introduce him to my daughter. Meeting my little one was a huge step. It confirmed the fact that we were planning on staying in a committed relationship for the foreseeable future. Really, it meant that we were planning on getting married in the future. I didn’t want my daughter to meet and lose another man in her life.

So for me, the day that my future-husband met my daughter was a huge, enormous moment in my life. It’s a day that I won’t forget, because that anticipation and stress still lingers in the back of my head.

This week for Splitsville, in honor of romance and new relationships, I asked some friends and readers how they introduced their little ones to their future step-parents. Was it a much-anticipated event? Or did it happen naturally over the course the relationship? Did you wait months or get it over on the first date? My own story is mixed in there somewhere.

Feel free to share your lover-meets-loved-one story in the comments. We would love to hear how you approached this all-important meeting.