Parenting through Divorce: Helping Your Children Thrive During and After the Split

by Lisa René Reynolds, James L. Hyer (Foreword)

Divorce has devastating effects on children. Yet for divorcing parents who carefully consider and manage the intricacies associated with this difficult time, both parents, as seen from the child’s perspective, can remain as loving and supportive as they ever were.

Parenting Through Divorce concisely lays out the specific emotions and reactions parents need to anticipate from their children while going through separation, divorce, and its aftermath. Rather than weighing parents down with complicated plans, confusing information, and legal terminology, this book takes a commonsense approach, providing readers in a state of emotional distress with the practical, down-to-earth advice they need to sensibly and comfortingly guide their children through this often-painful process.

Covering the most common mistakes divorcing parents tend to make, as well as addressing special issues that come up for kids of different age groups, this book helps you retain a strong, healthy, and loving environment for your child, even in the midst of change. This is a much-needed repository of wisdom and practical counsel for any family going through a time of heightened feelings and fragile relationships.

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

Reviews

[Niamh · Rating 3 out of 5]

God I didn't realize how envious I would be of all those whose ex's are as reasonable and ready to communicate and engage as all the ex's modeled in this book! Ugly emotion, but there it is! Valid, so long as it's not dwelt upon?
Everything mentioned in this book is exactly what I wanted things to look like going into all of this. It only works though if both parents are willing to communicate, plan, deliberate etc - *hard* lesson to learn, and it took me a while to accept.
I don't really know what I expected this book to be. I guess I just wanted to get something out of it. Anything really.
But really it was mostly all just pretty basic stuff. It's either stuff I already do or it's stuff that I have wanted to do but can't do due to circumstances.
I think perhaps my situation is not the norm, so it's not really fair to expect a general book to cover all bases, but I think I did go in with a sort of small hope that it would show me the light. Nice and neatly packaged. A me problem probably 🤷

Others have said it feels dated - yes! I was shocked to see that it was only written in 2011! Feels way older!

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worthwhile read, but it really gives pretty logical advice. Speak to your ex and communicate constantly about your kids. And don't be a jerk. Still, I suspect some people need to hear this.

The other issue I had with this book was that it was focused on younger kids. About 80% of the book was about school-aged (pre-teen) children. There was a chapter on teens, but it was fairly basic. I think teens require more attention.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on shaming divorcing parents. Feels dated.

[Adriane Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated, but has some good advice. I liked that she had some chapters on different age groups of children. I found it helpful.

[Kira Browett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely dated, but still has good advice and answers to a lot of good questions for parents going through divorce and making things easier on the kids.

[Mike Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic resource. I can't speak highly enough about it. It offers practical and easy to follow advice for how to best to care for the kids, including how to break the news. It also offered a what to expect in different age groups. Here's some of the other things I found most helpful: Golden rules for parenting, guidelines for telling children why, mental health and kids, children's books to help explain and when to see professional help for the kids. I expect to re-read this over again soon. It's that's good!