Independent thinking
The ability to think outside the box is a skill that will serve your teen in almost all circumstances. This includes critical thinking, which must be fostered from a relatively young age. If you consistently impede your child’s ability to create their own thoughts and opin…
Depending on the nature of your custody arrangement, it is likely that your children are required to split time between two houses. Things can get complicated when your child may not want to go to one house or another. This refusal can occur for a wide variety of reasons and it is important to un…
Everyone will not be happy
While you and your new spouse may be blissfully happy it is important to recognize that most of the other members of the family are probably not approaching this transition from the same emotional place. It is important to not only recognize this but also behave acco…
Most of the time unsolicited advice is innocuous, but in the case of divorce, advice from well meaning but misinformed people can be harmful.
Encouraging acrimony
Especially if you feel slighted by your divorce, it is likely that those around you may encourage you to “fight” or be intenti…
Planning for summer two to three months in advance allows everyone in the family to prepare for, and enjoy summer with less stress, conflict and uncertainty.
Once the summer schedule is set, parents may still make requests of one another for schedule changes in order to take advantage of spontan…
1. Love yourself
Being a single parent is incredibly daunting and you will be a thousand times more successful if you engage in self-care. In order to be a good parent, especially when doing the job solo, its important to be the best version of your self. This can only be achieved by loving you…
Will our increasingly polarized political climate have a future impact on divorce? Following the election of Donald Trump, there were several viral news stories about women leaving their husbands over their political differences. Is this justifiable? Should there be a marriage vow clause for “in …
Self-Care for Parents in Divorce
Susan Stiffelman shared an image in her latest newsletter with the subject “You have permission to rest, and more”. Often parents, particularly parents going through a divorce or trying emotional time forget that they too are human beings that deserve to be…
There are several possible resolutions to a case when a child is removed from the home by CPS and a dependency action is initiated. The most familiar is reunification, i.e. the child goes back to the parent and the court dismisses the case. On the opposite end is the initiation of a termination c…
With Trump officially sworn in as the 45 President of the United States; many are running to their local family lawyer. Why? Because parentage rights may be in question. In Washington State one parent is considered the biological parent of the child and the other presumptive parent. This can get …