Putting Children First: Proven Parenting Strategies for Helping Children Thrive Through Divorce offers a compassionate, research-based guide for parents facing the end of a marriage. Drawing on decades of work with families in transition, the author explains how mothers and fathers can reduce the impact of divorce on their children and foster resilience and emotional health.
The book helps parents understand what children experience before, during, and long after a breakup, and how stress affects a child’s developing brain. It emphasizes emotionally intelligent parenting that combines steady love with clear, appropriate limits, even in the midst of major family change.
Practical advice is provided for reducing conflict with a former spouse, shielding children from damaging disputes, and creating a more stable, hopeful environment. Real-life stories, along with children’s own words and drawings, bring these principles to life and show how families can move toward healing.
Key topics include:
- What children of different ages may feel and need during divorce
- Strategies for communicating with children about family changes
- Tools for managing conflict and co-parenting more effectively
- Supporting children’s long-term emotional well-being and resilience
