Websites
Check out our Blog Roll on the home page for a complete list of sites we recommend an enjoy!
Deesha’s co-parenting column at The Faster Times
Want more of Deesha’s often-irreverent, always honest talk about co-parenting? Check her out on The Faster Times, a new media newspaper “for a new type of world.”
WeParent is a community of parents and parent advisers striving to give our children one of the keys to a happy, healthy and fulfilled life…a strong family. WeParent is on a mission to to support and facilitate a co-parenting “revolution” among African-American parents! Through WeParent.com, WeParent Connect, live events, teleclasses, and more, single parents, co-parents and blended families can all find resources, education and community to support your parenting partnerships. WeParent strives to uplift mothers and fathers like us who are living apart but parenting TOGETHER! Talibah Mbonisi, founder of WeParent, is our co-host on the “Co-Parenting Matters” show.
Founded by single dad RJ Jaramillo, “SingleDad.com is the first comprehensive online resource developed for single dads. It provides an extensive array of valuable services, advice and referrals, plus an interactive social network that connects single dads nationwide. SingleDad.com is dedicated to helping single dads navigate through the daily challenges of single parenting by providing the highest quality resources and timely information to support the family’s continued health, wealth and general well-being.”
Smom (smam) n. – a noble woman who cares for and nurtures her husband’s children (formerly known as stepmom).
“Our vision at Café smomtm is to serve up a hearty cup of uplifting words, encouragement and support and to connect you with other stepmoms around the world going through exactly what you are going through. We offer information, a smomtm share blog, links to positive insights on blended families, marriage, and being a stepmom. We also offer a selection of gifts designed specifically for smoms. Café smomtm is dedicated to you the stepmom and to helping you build a blended family that thrives. We are on a mission to wipe out the old “definition of stepmoms” and showcase that we are women who willingly took on another woman’s children with love and care. We are not the “evil stepmother” from Cinderella but rather women who try with all that we have even when we often get little back from our stepkids.”
DadsDivorce.com provides essential information and resources about divorce, alimony, child support and child custody to men and fathers at any stage of divorce.
WHAT IS PARENTING COORDINATION?
Brooke Randolph, parenting coordinator
Brooke Randolph is a licensed mental health counselor/therapist who also serves as a parenting coordinator. Increasingly, family courts are turning to parenting coordinators to assist co-parents experiencing high levels of conflict.
CoParenting101.org: How are children impacted by parents who remain entangled in conflict after a break up?
Brooke Randolph: Exposure to high levels of inter-parental conflict has been the strongest predictor of child maladjustment after divorce. Unfortunately up to 25% of divorces result in high conflict during the first two years following the divorce, and up to 15% of families of divorce continue to experience high conflict for several years. When children are under stress, they can withdraw, suffer mood swings, demand more attention, become fearful, lose interest in activities they once enjoyed, have difficulty with schoolwork, become defiant or destructive, experience nightmares, and/or experience physical symptoms. Parents seem to forget that children identify with both parents as part of themselves and experience confusion when they observe one parent rejecting the other…
Read the rest of “When Co-Parents Collide,” our interview with Brooke Randolph.
Here are some helpful resources:
Articles
“A Successful Parenting Plan for Children After Divorce”, an excerpt. Reprinted with permission by New Harbinger Publications, Inc., The Co-Parenting Survival Guide, Elizabeth Thayer and Jeffrey Zimmerman www.newharbinger.com
Co-Parenting After Separation or Divorce A comprehensive guide for co-parents; covers topics such as a “recipe” for co-parenting success, situations where co-parenting isn’t possible, guidelines for managing educational, medical, discipline, and financial issues, and more.
Children and Separation/Divorce: Helping Your Child Cope
Developing a Parenting Plan: A Guide for Divorcing Parents Some states mandate divorcing parents, with children under the age of 18, to file a parenting plan with the court as a part of the divorce process.
Co-Parenting After Divorce A very detailed how-to guide and fact sheet by Emily M. Douglas, University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Family Education and Policy Specialist.
Children First A useful article on co-parenting after separation and divorce from North Dakota State University and (inexplicably) The U.S. Department of Agriculture.