Tip - The 10 Commandments for Staying Friends With Your Exes

I call my friend Ashley the “Ex-Boyfriend Whisperer.” I call her this because no matter how bad any of her breakups have been, four months after the split, Ashley and her former beau have moved safely into the friend zone. This hasn’t happened just once or twice. A few fluke friendships can happen to anyone. I recently asked Ashley how many serious (more than three months was the cutoff) boyfriends she had, and how many of them she remained friends (in regular contact) with. It took her a minute, a pad and a pen and access to Facebook before she responded, “Fifteen for fifteen.” Then she proceeded to tell me she couldn’t hang out the following weekend because she had to go to a baptism for her college boyfriend’s baby. Seriously. Ashley is rare, but she isn’t some kind of relationship unicorn. There are some men and women whose superpowers include maintaining beyond-cordial associations with everyone they’ve ever seriously dated. So, what’s the secret? I asked 10 of these savants to share their Ten Commandments for Staying Friends With an Ex. Some of the rules are rational but difficult for those of us who relish the irrational after a