Discover how attachment theory can help you better understand yourself and your ex, improve your co-parenting skills, and raise happy, emotionally secure kids! If you’re like most parents, you want—more than anything—for your child to feel safe, loved, and confident that their needs will be met. However, this can be difficult when you’re sharing custody with an ex. Instead of working together, you may feel at war with one another, and in the end, nobody wins—especially your child. So, how can you ensure that you and your ex are on the same page when it comes to co-parenting? With this unique and highly practical guide, you’ll learn the science of attachment theory, and how to apply it to your co-parenting relationship. Secure attachment refers to the bond between a parent and young child, which gives that child a stable and secure basis from which to negotiate life going forward. A child with a secure base can weather the storms of trauma and life changes —such as those caused by divorce—much more easily than a child who doesn’t. Co-parents who understand this principle have a significant advantage, because they can learn how to provide secure attachment for their child, even while no longer living under the same roof. You’ll learn the “principles of engagement” for successful co-parenting: Commitment: Create certainty in the midst of change by committing to show up and be present for your child, thereby creating trust and reducing anxiety. Collaboration: Work together, with a shared vision for co-parenting, to create win-win-wins for all. Clarity: Maintain clear, concise, calm, and timely communications, thereby minimizing misunderstandings and providing accountability. Consistency: Build consistent structures in both homes to create reliable and predictable environments. Connection: Co-parents stay present and mindful with their child to help them process their emotions and to build secure attachment. Community: Cultivate community and external support systems, thereby expanding the circle of love. Co-parenting is often difficult, and sometimes it can feel like a battle. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Using the insight and wisdom in this guide, you’ll learn how to build a solid and supportive co-parenting team. And the real winner will be your kid!

A successful co-parenting relationship is as vital to your child's well-being and health as nutritious food or proper exercise. Research, anecdotal evidence, and plain common sense all point to the fact that children are happier, healthier, and better adjusted when both of their parents play an active role in their lives. Studies also show that the trauma children experience in the wake of a divorce or separation can be lessened when they see their parents getting along. Kids whose parents successfully co-parent feel more secure than those who have limited or no connection to one of their parents post divorce. Co-Parenting 101 is based on the premise that co-parenting is a must, not an option. The involvement of both parents—not just the primary guardian—is the cornerstone of successful co-parenting. This is the first book written by a formerly married couple for whom co parenting is central to their day to day lives, and it offers a comprehensive, personal, and upfront look at how to effectively raise kids with an ex-spouse. Authors Deesha Philyaw and Michael D. Thomas, the creators of the popular co-parenting website, co-parenting101.org, share their own experiences raising their children together, as well as provide professional advice from co-parenting experts. Through practical tips combined with expert parental strategies, this book a great resource for divorced parents with children. For parents, less time stressed out about legal wrangling means more time to be fully present and engaged with the children. By learning to put their animosity aside, parents can focus on putting their kids first.

A valuable resource for parents who are transitioning from being married with children to co-parenting together, this handbook will help ensure kids and co-parents thrive. Parents need help to confidently take on the challenges of guiding children through divorce or separation and raising them skillfully in two homes. The authors, both trusted divorce and co-parenting coaches, provide the road map for all family members to safely navigate the difficult emotional terrain through separation/divorce and beyond. Addressing parents’ questions about the emotional impact of separation, conflict, grief, and recovery, the authors share their well-tested and reassuring guidance on how to move from angry, hurt partners to constructive, successful co-parents who are able to put their children’s needs first. Chock-full of strategies to help resolve day-to-day issues, create boundaries, and establish guidelines.

Packed with research, insights, and illuminating (and often funny) examples from Paris’s own divorce experience, this book is a “practical and reassuring guide to parting well.” —Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project Engaging and revolutionary, filled with wit, searing honesty, and intimate interviews, Splitopia is a call for a saner, more civil kind of divorce. As Paris reveals, divorce has improved dramatically in recent decades due to changes in laws and family structures, advances in psychology and child development, and a new understanding of the importance of the father. Positive psychology expert and author of Happier, Tal Ben-Shahar, writes that Paris’s “personal insights, stories, and research” create “a smart and interesting guide that can be extremely helpful for those going through divorce.” Reading this book can be the difference between an expensive, ugly battle and a decent divorce, between children sucked under by conflict or happy, healthy kids. This is “a compelling case that it’s high time for a new definition of Happily Ever After—for everyone” (Brigid Schulte, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time).

Raising well-adjusted, resilient and resourceful kids in a two-home family from little ones to young adults.

There are over twenty-five million children growing up in America today without their biological father in the home, and single parents account for approximately 37 percent of all households. Yet, there is still a huge lack of Christian-based ministries for single parents, especially when it comes to the dads. Based off of his experience as a single dad himself, Matt Haviland shares with us his journey of joy, trials, and grace that has brought him to this point in single father ministry. He tells in dramatic detail the testimony of how Jesus not only rescued and redeemed him from a destructive lifestyle, but how God has given him the ability to lead and guide single dads along the way and become a great dad as well. A Fathers Walk is not just another self-help book. It is a tool, resource, and inspiration written by someone who is in the trenches every single daya man who knows the love only a father can have for his child, the daily struggles of being a single dad, and the unimaginable grace that our Savior bestows upon those who call upon Him. This is a must-have for any single dad looking to grow as a father and in their walk with the Lord!

Protect your child from alienation and loyalty conflicts. During and after a difficult divorce, it’s easy for your relationship with your kids to become strained—especially if you are dealing with a toxic ex who bad-mouths you in front of your children, accuses you of being a bad parent, and even attempts to “replace” you with a new partner in your children’s lives. Your children may become confused, conflicted, angry, anxious, or depressed—and you may feel powerless. But there is help. In this guide, you’ll discover a positive parenting approach to dealing with a hostile ex-spouse. You'll learn the best ways to protect your children from painful loyalty conflicts, how to avoid parental alienation syndrome, and techniques for talking to your children in a way that fosters honesty and trust. Co-parenting with a toxic ex can be challenging, but with the right tools you can protect your kids and make your relationship with them stronger than ever.

This book gives divorcing parents the power to make positive changes to shield your childen from conflict and help you establish a positive, long term relationship with your child's other parent.

As Bowlby himself points out in his introduction to this seminal childcare book, to be a successful parent means a lot of very hard work. Giving time and attention to children means sacrificing other interests and activities, but for many people today these are unwelcome truths. Bowlby’s work showed that the early interactions between infant and caregiver have a profound impact on an infant's social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Controversial yet powerfully influential to this day, this classic collection of Bowlby’s lectures offers important guidelines for child rearing based on the crucial role of early relationships.

Upon hearing the news that his father has gone to jail, a six-year-old boy poses the question of this generation: Whos going to take my Dads place? The Daddy Gap takes an uncensored look at the distress so many fatherless families are in and provides desperately needed answers about how God responds to this question and how the Church should as well. Dawn Walker and Matt Haviland build a compelling case that not only are single parent families the widows and orphans of this generation, but that it is the Church, not the government, that should be responsible to care for them. Drawing from their own journeys as single parents, Dawn and Matt give heartfelt encouragement to these often marginalized families by sharing how God really sees them, loves them, and wants to heal and restore them. Full of rich insights and lavish grace, they also offer some hard truths about what redemption and restoration really require. Most importantly, they clear a path to help all wounded sons and daughters discover the Father theyve always wanted and who has always wanted them.