publication date: Aug 17, 2007
Sadly, many of us have
relationships that
fail. Even sadder, we may
not realise that failure is
possible before we have taken the
greatest step any
two people can take together –
producing a child.
This
book, subtitled
A handbook for separated parents is designed to take what is a
potentially harmful situation for such
children and make it into a
positive and
enriching one.
The
authors have been
involved in
counselling broken
families over many years and run the
Centre for Separated Families, which supports
parents in
developing co-parenting
skills and raising
healthy and
happy children. They have many
case histories in the book which have been
chosen carefully to
illustrate topics and these make very interesting reading.
Each
chapter looks at
issues from the
point of view of different
people in
separated families and their interrelationships. There are some
excellent sections which help to
dissect emotions and
clarify where
problems might lie. At every
stage, the authors are keen to
stress the
importance of the
children and their
thoughts and
feelings.
The book is
clearly set out and the chapters
logically and thoroughly
explore all the issues that might
arise before reaching a
conclusion with sound
advice on each
topic. Some of the advice seems a little
heavy-handed for my
taste – I would never be able to
keep and
update a Parenting Information Exchange Form, but I
suppose it is an
idea that might
work for some!
I have been a
separated parent for many years and thus have
arrived at
strategies that work for my
family and me. This book is
really aimed at those in
earlier stages of separation and I
think it would have been very
helpful had I seen it when my
daughter’s father and I first
split up. There is an
extensive index which allows you to
cherry pick the parts you
Overall, a
helpful book for parents who have just
separated and their
children – at the
end of reading
Putting Children First I was
pleased I had got
quite a lot
right! The tone of the book is that separated parenting can be a really
positive experience and I am sure it
would be for those who follow the
advice in these
pages.
Putting Children First is published by
Piatkus Books, to order a copy from Amazon please click below
Putting Children First: A Handbook for Separated Parents
