Co-Parenting Through Cancer: How One Mom Found Stability with Structure, Support, and TalkingParents

During Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, TalkingParents shares the story of a mother who used accountable communication to find stability while navigating separation, a custody battle, and her son's chemotherapy treatment simultaneously

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla., Sept. 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For any family, the challenges of being affected by childhood cancer can be overwhelming. Imagine facing those challenges while going through infidelity, separation, a custody dispute, and managing the needs of a second young child.

It’s exactly what Moncerratt “Monce” Villalobos encountered.

As the nation observes Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, this mother of two and TalkingParents user is sharing how she navigated the experience. Her story is one of resilience, accountability, and the role that structured communication played in helping her family find stability during one of the most difficult periods a parent can face.

A diagnosis in the middle of a separation

According to the American Childhood Cancer Organization, approximately 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S. For Monce, that number became painfully personal in 2021, when her young son was diagnosed with cancer.

That same year, she discovered her partner of six years had been unfaithful—a revelation that came while she was spending days and nights at the hospital managing her son's chemotherapy treatments and caring for their one-year-old daughter.

By 2022, she decided to leave the relationship. An incredibly difficult choice given her situation. She was a stay-at-home mom without a job, had two children under five, and her son was still undergoing treatment. But she believed that choosing her own well-being was also choosing what was best for her kids.

"It was very scary," Monce said. "I didn't have a job. Our son was diagnosed with cancer. I still had a one-year-old. It was very hard to juggle all of that at once."

A separation compounded by a health crisis

When Monce and her co-parent separated, the communication challenges were immediate and intense from both sides. After six years together, four of them living under the same roof, neither parent knew how to communicate effectively in this new dynamic. Conversations were hostile, and the boundaries were unclear. The situation made it feel impossible to compromise on schedules, responsibilities, and decisions about the children.

The difficulty was only amplified by their son's ongoing chemotherapy. During his first year of treatment, Monce was essentially living at the hospital, attending appointments and staying as long as her son needed her while relying on family members to help care for her daughter. Coordinating medical schedules, custody logistics, and daily parenting responsibilities across two households, all while processing the end of a relationship, was overwhelming.

The children felt it too. Their oldest was three and a half, and their youngest had just turned two. Monce noticed her children struggling to regulate their emotions as they went back and forth between homes. There was more crying, more tantrums, and a visible discomfort during transitions.

A friend's recommendation changed the dynamic

Despite wanting to reduce conflict, Monce and her co-parent struggled to find a communication approach that worked for them. That’s when a friend who works with co-parents professionally suggested Monce look into a co-parenting communication app. For Monce, her friend's advice was simple: suggest it, don't push it. With that, she reached out to her co-parent and proposed trying TalkingParents. If it didn't work, they could stop using it.

They agreed to try.

The shift was noticeable almost immediately. Knowing that every message was documented and preserved created a natural sense of accountability for both parents. During a custody battle where anything communicated could be used in court, that structure mattered. The tone of their conversations changed. The power struggles that characterized their early communication began to level out.

"Once you hear everything is recorded, you're just kind of in a place where you don't want to say the wrong thing," Monce said. "It held us both accountable. And our communication did start improving."

A son in remission, family stability, and peace of mind

Today, Monce's son is seven years old and has been cancer-free for two years. Her daughter is six. Both children are thriving, and Monce credits structured co-parenting for helping create the stability and consistency her family needed to navigate a difficult chapter.

She continues to use TalkingParents' Secure Messaging as her primary form of communication and the Shared Calendar, which helps her stay on top of appointments, school events, and activities for both children.

She has also started using the Info Library to centralize medical information, insurance details, and other important records, moving them out of personal phone notes and into a place where both parents can access what they need without having to ask or scroll through old messages.

The biggest change, though, has been emotional—something she discusses in her Real Co-Parents video. Before TalkingParents, Monce described her anxiety as extremely high any time she needed to message or call her co-parent. Since using the platform, that anxiety has leveled out.

"When I get a TalkingParents notification now, I'm cool as a cucumber," Moncerratt said. "I open the message, I respond, and I'm not sitting in that anxiety anymore. I know some parents can feel that right now. Everything has been smoother for me emotionally."

For co-parents navigating a child's illness, uncertainty is often unavoidable. But clear communication, shared accountability, and reliable structure can help families devote more of their energy to what matters most: supporting their children.

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About TalkingParents 
TalkingParents is a communications and coordination platform that offers co-parents secure and accountable tools for the responsibility that matters most—raising children. Founded in 2011 on the idea of mutual accountability with an Unalterable Record of all communications and activities, TalkingParents has helped nearly a million families find support and peace of mind with tools like Accountable Calling, Accountable Payments, Secure Messaging, and Shared Calendar. With the ability to request unalterable, court-certified Records, TalkingParents is trusted by parents and legal professionals nationwide. TalkingParents strives to increase family harmony through better communication and transparency. For more information, visit TalkingParents.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X.

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• Co-Parenting Through Cancer: How One Mom Found Stability with Structure, Support, and TalkingParents
• Co-Parenting Through Cancer: How One Mom Found Stability with Structure, Support, and TalkingParents

Jeff Andrejcik
TalkingParents
850-659-3812
marketing@talkingparents.com