DC4K » Shared parenting

Question of the week: What custody arrangement is best for the children?

People ask me this question quite often. Usually, they are children’s ministry leaders or church leaders who don’t have much experience with divorce or single-parenting issues. Nationally, there is a huge debate on this issue. Let’s take a step back in history to help you understand some of the issues in this debate. In 1969, when then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed the no-fault divorce Read more…

Posted: May 16th, 2018 ˑ 2 Comments
Filled under: Accept the Challenge, Co-parenting, Divorce Issues, Single Parents

Question of the week: What are the causes of kids being unruly during and after a divorce?

Many things are happening in children’s lives when their parents separate or divorce. Children don’t understand adult problems, and even though a lot of their friends have divorced parents, many children simply don’t know what the word “divorce” means. All they know is their parents were together, and now one parent is packing up to leave. In Divorced Kids by Laurene Johnson Read more…

Posted: January 10th, 2018 ˑ No Comments
Filled under: Co-parenting, Discipline, Divorce Issues, Emotions, Modern families, Preschool, Question of the week, Single Parents, Step and blended families

Co-parenting that hurts kids and what you can do to help

Co-parenting or shared parenting among divorcing couples is becoming more popular. For many children this is a good thing. This means they get to have both parents making life-long decisions for their welfare. It means children can still have family connections with both sides of the family. In our last post, Understanding co-parenting situations we talked about the three different models of co-parenting Read more…

Posted: February 22nd, 2017 ˑ 4 Comments
Filled under: Co-parenting, Discipline, Divorce Issues, Emotions, Single Parents

What is shared parenting, and how does it affect the children in your ministry?

Riley has just started attending your church. She seems to be a happy kid. She talks freely about her mom and dad and even mentions them in the same sentence at times, as in, “My mom and dad both like that new restaurant.” So you are surprised when one day Riley says something about her dad’s house. You go to your files and Read more…

Posted: June 2nd, 2016 ˑ No Comments
Filled under: Co-parenting, Divorce Issues, Modern families, Visitation

Question of the week: How is child custody decided– and how do I understand custody definitions?

It can be confusing for anyone ministering to the child of divorce and or divorcing parents. Following are questions children’s ministers in particular have asked me. Is there a formula that is used when deciding custody and visitation? Do all states have the same rules when it comes to child custody? What is legal co-parenting? What is shared parenting? What does sole custody Read more…

Posted: July 13th, 2015 ˑ No Comments
Filled under: Divorce Issues, Question of the week, Single Parents, Step and blended families