Dating after divorce affects kids primarily through changes in household stability, the pacing of new relationships, and how much conflict remains between co-parents, not through the simple fact that a parent is dating at all.
Texting an ex-situationship back is worth doing only when whatever actually ended it the first time has genuinely changed, not simply because their message happened to arrive on a slow, lonely night.
Ending a situationship without ghosting means sending one clear, direct closing message instead of disappearing, even though the connection itself was never formally defined.
Casual dating, situationships, and friends with benefits all involve low or unclear commitment, but they differ on one core question: were the terms ever actually agreed on, and what is the connection actually built around, shared time, ambiguity, or physical intimacy specifically.
