Resources
Talking to your children about divorce may be the most important step you take in preparing them for what to expect and helping them to adjust. Helping Children Understand Divorce is a helpful guide for parents that you will find worthwhile. Click on the link and look through it.
There are many resources available to parents who are divorcing, among them books, websites, films, and support groups.
Books
Online Resources
There are three books I suggest for divorcing parents that I refer to as "required reading." Both parents should take time to read each of them:
by Elizabeth Thayer & Jeffrey Zimmerman
by Isolina Ricci
by Philip Stahl
Dr. Mark Banschick has created a helpful site in which his book ("The Intelligent Divorce"), his blog posts, and many other helpful links are available. He also offers an on-line parenting course at a relatively low cost which can help divorcing parents caught up in hostile disengagement.
This app can help to create instruments for managing parenting agreements, both for parents and attourneys.
Divorce Net is an excellent site with much valuable general information about divorcing and parenting. It also has links to specific states, with family law information, news and community resources
This excellent site provides a service to parents who share custody and can communicate using the internet. It has a wide range of aids to families including calendars, ways of sharing information and a myriad of links to help you in the co-parenting process.
This is an extremely comprehensive site, called My Divorce, created by a group of matrimonial lawyers in Florida. While some of the legal information is specific to that state, the overall site (dedicated to "knowledge is power") addresses multiple aspects of the process and has a strong focus on the emotional impact on children. Well worth giving it a look.
Additional Helpful Links
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Child Centered Solutions: (online discussions, blog)
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Collaborative Divorce: (resource for and from collaborative attorneys)
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Divorcesource.com: (run by lawyers; resources for every state)
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Family Kind: (Family Kind provides support to families in transition after separation or divorce including parent education, mediation, parenting coordination, their programs: GoodTalk4Parents, GoodTalk4Children, and addressing family relationships coaching, and more.)
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Making Two Homes Work: (online parent education)
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Overcoming Barriers: (This is a non-profit organization with a unique approach to addressing situations where children refuse to engage with a parent. Their creative intervention is a “camp setting”. In their words: [Overcoming Barriers helps] post- divorce/separation families caught in intractable parental conflict, bring together the entire family in a positive, clinically supported, natural environment, to learn and practice skills as a rebalanced family.)
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Parenting Coordination Central: PC Central (more about parenting coordination)
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Thrive After Divorce: (not so much co-parenting but about finding a direction for yourself after divorce)