Should I Start Dating?

On her last conscious day, my wife advised me not to get involved with another woman until she had been gone a year. A little more than a year after my wife died, I began dating a woman whom I thought I might marry. I had known her for years, she was attractive, and we had similar outlooks on life.

I knew I should tell my three adult children about the woman and my friendship with her, so I gathered my children together one evening and told them about my lady friend. They were thunderstruck. They were less shocked when I told them more about the lady, but it was still a shock to them because it seemed I was replacing their mother.

The woman and I saw each other for a year, but by the end of the year it was clear to her and to me that we weren’t ready to marry. She was still emotionally married to her departed husband, and I was emotionally married to my wife and my kids. That woman and I parted as friends, and neither of us is likely to marry in the future.

If you begin to date a woman, telling your children is likely to be essential to an open, trusting relationship with them.