I am watching the first episode. Of course there is the obligatory fight between Ann and Julie. It seems that they have not been settled in Indianapolis for very long, but the girls seem awfully comfortable and familiar with 26 year old divorce attorney David. How far after the divorce is finalized is this supposed to be? Or did they move from Logansport before the divorce is final so they have already been there for a bit? And the girls seem to have no issue with the relationship between Ann and David.

We also get our first happening of Ann screaming at Ed.

I am watching the first episode. Of course there is the obligatory fight between Ann and Julie. It seems that they have not been settled in Indianapolis for very long, but the girls seem awfully comfortable and familiar with 26 year old divorce attorney David. How far after the divorce is finalized is this supposed to be? Or did they move from Logansport before the divorce is final so they have already been there for a bit? And the girls seem to have no issue with the relationship between Ann and David.

We also get our first happening of Ann screaming at Ed.

Divorces can take months to finalize. I am not familiar with the divorce laws in Indiana, but some states have mandatory waiting periods and/or separation periods before the divorce can be finalized. In some cases, the waiting periods are longer if there are kids involved. And this was the 1970s, so I'm sure the divorce laws were even more conservative than now. There was (and still is) a public policy to promote families staying together if they can. This is why you can't just go to the courthouse and get a same-day divorce. You have to file a petition, give your spouse notice, and probably get a temporary order until the final decree is signed.

Several months would have passed from the time Ann hired David to handle her divorce until the judge signed the decree dissolving the marriage between Ann and Ed. There were probably property issues that had to be decided and possibly a trial on that. It doesn't sound like they had a contested hearing on custody because Julie and Barbara were old enough to state a preference and say they wanted to live with Ann. Sounds like Ed respected that. During this whole period, Ann would have had time to find an apartment in Indianapolis, find a job, etc. I think David lived in Logansport, but then he moved to Indianapolis with Ann and settled into the same apartment complex.

My guess would be that the divorce had been finalized for about 6 months by the time the first episode aired. As for Julie and Barbara being comfortable with David, I think they were still in shock over the divorce and still in hopes of Ann and Ed getting back together. It took them years to let go of that hope. They wanted their parents together. I think they initially thought that the divorce was temporary, and they were just enjoying a brief new life in another town. They liked David as long as they didn't feel threatened by him. When Ed announces his marriage to Vicki, Julie and Barbara quickly change their tunes and want David gone. This says that they had been holding out hope all along. Very sad, and bravo to this show for depicting divorce's effect on children so accurately.