TODAY, I received the best belated Father's Day present I could ask for - joint legal custody of my eldest daughter.

While the mediation itself went surprisingly smooth, getting to that point wasn't so easy. Getting my daughter's mother to agree to mediation and trust that I wasn't trying to take our daughter away from her, despite having the legal right to do so, was a rough road.

Truth is, she fought tooth and nail, insisting on a court battle that would not have ended in her favor and would have caused disarray throughout the entire family. In an effort to transcend our differences, much mediation went into getting her to see things my way, and in the end, cooler heads prevailed. The mediator actually admitted it was one of the smoothest mediations she'd done in some time.

I'm a firm believer that as single parents, we need to show continued love and respect to our exes not only for our children's sake, but for our own as well. It shows growth and compassion, qualities we all want in our children, but it also shows that as adults, there is always a way to find agreement where their previously was none.

Today, I'm thankful for the gift I received, and I'm also thankful that we as parents, have taken a big step towards acting more like the parents we want our children to have.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting more about custody, a topic that often seems unattainable for us as single fathers. Come share your stories and vote on the polls. I'd love to hear some of your experiences.

Cheers.