Who this is for
Parents who have separated recently and are working out how this goes. Parents who separated years ago and are still having the same argument. New partners trying to work out what their role is. And families joining up, where two sets of rules, two sets of loyalties and somebody else's teenager all arrive in one house at once.
What it covers
The handful of decisions that actually need to be joint, and the much longer list that does not. How to hand a child over without an argument attached. What to do when the other house has different rules, which it will. How to talk about the other parent in front of a child who is listening for a reason to take a side. What a step-parent is for in the first year, which is usually less than they expect and more useful than they think.
It is practical. You leave with wording you can actually use, not a theory of family systems.
The thing that helps most
Children do not need their parents to be friends. They need to stop being the channel the two households talk through. Almost everything in this course is a way of taking them out of the middle.
Practical
The training runs in the group room at the office in Hale. Both parents can attend together where that is workable and safe, and separately where it is not. Call (989) 728-2364 to ask when the next one runs and what it costs.
Where there has been violence or there is fear between the parents, joint sessions are not appropriate, and we will arrange this differently or say it is not the right service. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.