We’ve had a Valentine’s Day event for the last several years now, and we’ve found that they’re a pretty tremendous success! Whether you don’t have a Valentine this year, or whether you’d just prefer to celebrate with girlfriends rather than a man, you’re not alone. And isn’t that a beautiful thing?
If we’ve found one thing to be true over time, as we host more and more Girl’s Night Out events, it’s that we’re not alone. Whatever we’re experiencing, there’s always someone else out there going through something similar, and there’s just so much strength in that. In a lot of cases, a divorce or custody case can be a really isolating experience. Often, married couples have other married friends; divorce puts a kink in that. Sometimes, one spouse or the other “keeps” the friend in the breakup, and, other times, both former spouses drift away from their other married friends. There’s usually some awkwardness as things change. It’s not really anyone’s fault, most of the time — it’s just that people (especially people who aren’t currently going through the same thing) don’t know what to say or how to act. And, besides, it changes the dynamic. If you used to double date, a transition to being at an event as a third wheel can feel different — both to you and to your former friends.
A lot of times, friendships survive anyway, given enough time. Not always, but often. Still, in the meantime, it’s really nice to find other friends who ARE going through some of the same things. Though a divorce or custody case is not a prerequisite to attendance at any of our events (we welcome all women, whatever their situation), there’s no denying that a large proportion of our attendees are either going through one, planning to go through one, or recently came out of one.
Valentine’s Day has become an important cornerstone for our Girl’s Night Out event series. It originally started when our former managing partner, Kristen Hofheimer, recognized this need for our clients. Not just for Valentine’s Day, but all the time — there’s a need for like mindedness, companionship, support — for women going through divorce and custody cases. We heard over and over again how women lost their friends in their divorces, and how lonely and isolating that made an already difficult experience feel. We also heard how difficult it was to afford any fun times out, because the costs of the divorce or custody case itself and the fears for the future put spending on fun on hold.
Though we can certainly understand (after all, we do this all the time), we didn’t like to hear it. And we wanted to help. And, so, Girl’s Night Out was born. Kristen also felt that Valentine’s Day was a particularly important time to offer support, and, so, over time, it became one of the more important social events on our calendars each year.
This year, we’ll be at the Banque in Norfolk (off of Little Creek) on Thursday, February 13th from 6-8pm. We’ve arranged for food, drinks, line dancing lessons, to all be available to you completely free of charge. We hope you’ll make time to attend; we’d love to see you there.
Never been before? That’s fine; we’re used to that! We’ll welcome you with open arms! Not comfortable coming alone? Bring a (female!) friend along, too. Whether she’s going through a divorce or custody case or not, we’re happy to have her.
For more information or to register to attend, click here. We hope to see you there.