Maintain a great relationship with your kids during and after divorce

More than half of all marriages end in divorce, many with kids caught in the middle. If you're a father going through divorce and you want to keep a close relationship with your children, you need practical guidance and advice on building a new life, keeping your kids' needs front and center.

Being a Great Divorced Father gives you the strategies and building blocks for maintaining a relationship with your children and shows you how to prioritize their needs as your life changes. Learn how to:

• create a new home and make room for your kids in it
• manage babysitters, after-school care and other details of daily life
• create and enforce house rules governing homework, TV, game use, and recreation
• communicate effectively with your ex: being nice, sparing the kids, establishing boundaries, and finding ways to agree
• settle legal and custody issues
• handle dating and remarriage

Being a Great Divorced Father helps you create an extended family by cooperating and collaborating with your former spouse, and prioritizing your children's needs, all written by a dad who's been there. Plus, read insightful examples of families who have met the challenges of divorce transition with success.

Table of Contents

I. Your Divorced Dad’s Companion: Lemons Into Lemonade

• A Chance for Growth
• Getting Started
• It’s All About the Kids

1. Making the Decision to Divorce

• One Last Try
• Honoring the Bonds of Our Children
• Taking Care of Yourself
• Who Moves Out?
• Leave the Lawyer Stuff for Later if You Can
• Money, Money, Money, Money
• Hang In There

2. Setting Up Housekeeping

• Making a Home
• Location, Location, Location
• Make Room for the Kids
• What’s Cookin’?
• Excuse Me! Do I Look Like a Taxi?
• Remember You’re Human
• Taking Stock

3. Two Parents, Two Homes: How to Make Shared Custody Work

• Dealing With the Changes
• Some Things Don’t Change
• Staying Connected
• Different Voices, Different Homes
• Establishing Your House Rules
• Getting Flexible at Work
• Show Up When You Say You Will
• Presence, Not Presents

4. A Day in the Life

• A Typical Day
• On Less-Than-Ideal Days
• Managing the Details
• Baby Sitters and After-School Care
• Right Speech and Staying Focused on the Future

5. Settling Up: Legal and Custody Issues

• The High Cost of Conflict
• The Basics of the Legal Divorce
• Dividing the Pie: Spousal Support and Property Division
• Legal Issues When a Spouse Is in the Military
• How to Choose an Attorney
• Making a Paper Trail
• When You Have to Fight
• Assume the Impossible Is Possible
• Don’t Underestimate Your Stress
• Opportunities for Personal Growth

6. Being the Parent You Want to Be

• Becoming the Parent You Want to Be
• Keeping Your Kids Out of the Fray
• Setting Limits
• Watching for Signs of Stress in Your Kids
• Our Teenagers, Ourselves

7. Keeping the Peace and Keeping Yourself Together

• Keeping the Peace With Your Ex
• Keeping Yourself Together
• Recognizing and Managing Stress
• Ten Not-So-Hard-and-Fast Rules for Managing Stress
• Recognizing and Managing Depression
• Choosing Your Problems
• Letting Go of Your Problems
• Don’t Go It Alone

8. Friends and Lovers

• The Dating Game: Ready or Not?
• Back in the Game
• Dating and Your Ex
• Introducing Your New Love to the Kids
• You’re the Boss of You
• When Your Ex Starts Dating

9. A Second Chance: Remarriage and Blending Families

• Parenting in a Blended Family
• Make Space for Mourning and Change Will Happen
• New Family, New Rituals
• Dealing With Your Ex About Your Marriage—And Hers
• Do We Really Have to Talk About This?
• Nurturing Your Relationship
• Nurturing Your Extended Family

Index

Legal Updates

Here are summaries of important legal or procedural changes that affect the latest edition of this product.