You know it's coming. While you were together in a relationship, that person criticized and smeared every previous ex-whatever that he or she had before you. So, take a wild guess as to what's going to happen now that you've become that person's ex as well.

Get ready to have a big X put through your name and be the next victim of that person's latest smear campaign. So what do you do when you are dealing with such a situation regardless of what the relationship was, whether it was with a former boo, schmoopie, business partner, buddy, compadre, or tater tot? Well, you can take the following steps:

Think about how your former whatever portrayed previous exes and assume the same may apply to you. In some cases, the answer may be obvious: They smeared everyone in some way.

In other cases, things may have been more subtle. It can be the "Gee, I like to be kind to all my exes, but here are some real intimate, embarrassing, and horrible details about them that I should have not shared" approach. Consider it the humblesmear instead of the humblebrag. Don't let the seemingly warm and soft outside belie the cold and hard center. Really assess whether your former whatever ever took appropriate responsibility for the failure of previous relationships versus........

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