Wondering How Your Kids Are Feeling About the Divorce? Take Them to a Movie and Find Out!

Submitted by: Mark Banschick M.D.
Movies can be a wonderful way to connect to your kids as your family go through a divorce. The reason for this is because of a psychological relief called displacement. Let me explain.
When you directly ask your kids how they feel about the divorce, it’s sometimes difficult for them to explain. [...]

Blended Family Vacations – How to be Successful

Submitted by Shirley Cress Dudley
You and your new spouse/boyfriend are wondering what to do about a vacation… 
Do you have the fantastic idea of taking your newly blended family on a three-week car ride all around the United States?
Uh oh… maybe you haven’t thought this through.                       
Your spouse/boyfriend is asking if maybe we should just take separate [...]

Vacation, Divorce and You

Submitted by: Mark Banschick M.D.
Tailor Summer Vacation to Meet Your Children’s Needs
Hello Summer: Summertime is here, and with it comes unique hurdles and real opportunities for families of divorce. Parents who are early on in the divorce process need to think carefully about their plans and tailor them for their children. What we want is [...]

Guidelines For a Smoother Divorce

Submitted by Shirley Cress Dudley
1- Keep contact to a minimum.
One phone call a day is excessive, several text messages a day is extremely excessive.  If you have a subject related to the kids- speak briefly and clearly about your expectations.  Emails are better than phone calls, if your issue is not an emergency.
2- Do not [...]

Turning The Kids Against The Ex

Submitted by Shirley Cress Dudley
When parents get divorced, sometimes the divorce is less than amiable.  Parents may carry resentment and anger.  Unfortunately, sometimes those negative thoughts are communicated to our children.
I regularly hear from stepfamilies that have been told by their children that Mom (or Dad) doesn’t love them anymore or that their new [...]

Why Did My Dad (or Mom) Remarry and Get a Step Family?

Submitted by Shirley Cress Dudley
It’s tough for kids to understand why parents get divorced, and even harder to understand why they remarry and have a blended or step family.  Here are some talking points for you to discuss this difficult topic with your kids.  You may need to revise some of the answers, based on [...]

Parental Alienation: “A Uterus, Divorce Papers and Bruises”

Submited by: Cathy
Father’s right activists have been attempting to have Parental Alienation Disorder added to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible” of diagnoses.
The National Organization for Women learned about the effort and is concerned. They have now sent out an Action Alert [...]

Important Considerations: What would happen to your kids IF…?

Submitted by Delaine
This past week, Mother Nature unleashed her winter wrath up here in Calgary, Alberta.  We’re talking large dumps of snow and temperatures than hovered between -25 and -40 C  (that’s -12 to -40 F).  And though I’m accustomed to extreme weather conditions being a born and bred Canuck, something REALLY stood out for [...]

Keeping The Empty Chair At The Table Warm

Submitted by Delaine
I’ll admit, the fact that I’m a single mom to three kids with an ex who’s rarely around, has worried and terrified the hell out of me – sometimes to the point of tears or hours of depression.  I’ve felt alone in the corner,  trying desperately to make good parenting decisions, to do what’s [...]

Shielding Your Kids From “The Heat”

Studies have shown that it’s the ongoing hostilities between divorcing parents that really emotionally damage and traumatize children.   So how do you protect your children’s emotional well-being if divorce matters are in the Red Zone, the two of you aren’t speaking, and you can’t even stand being in the same building as him/her?
You may ‘know’ you should smile and talk civilly and put on [...]

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