Single Parenting That Works

Being a parent is challenging enough. Being a single parent can seem downright impossible—until now. Drawing on material from his successful Single Parenting That Works curriculum guide and video series, America's favorite parenting expert, Dr. Kevin Leman, brings help and hope to the legions of single parents struggling to raise happy, healthy, well-adjusted children in a loving, caring and biblically grounded way. Using his trademark quirky, no-nonsense approach, Dr. Leman shows parents how to build healthy, mature relationships with their former spouses, how to develop their children's self-esteem, and how to discipline and relate to their kids in accordance with their unique God-given personalities. Features: Building stability for your children by getting your own life in order. How forgiveness opens the door to healthy relationships Learning to deal with your “ex” with an olive branch rather than a hammer Dating and remarriage Helping your child thrive in a single parent home

A guide with a Christian perspective shows single parents how to build healthy, mature relationships with their former spouses, how to develop their children's self-esteem, and how to relate to their kids and discipline them in accordance with their unique, God-given personalities.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book presents evidence from over 40 countries that shows how single parents face a triple bind of inadequate resources, employment and policies, which in combination further complicate their lives.

What if your child's "life-after-divorce" could be better than you've hoped for? As the post-divorce dust settles, your child's chances of leading a healthy, successful life are directly linked to how you and your former spouse relate. So instead of listening to statistics, read this book to discover real world co-parenting strategies from author, counselor, and co-parent Tammy Daughtry. Discover how you can make positive co-parenting work for you and your child by: Understanding how today's actions will affect your child in five, ten, and twenty years Teaming with your child's co-parent to develop strategies in the best interest of your children Helping your child feel at ease in both homes Increasing your child's self-esteem while minimizing anxiety Integrating stepparents into your co-parenting team Co-parenting isn't easy. But with these strategies for success, you'll be prepared to create an enjoyable childhood and a healthy upbringing that will impact your child for a lifetime. Take heart--the future can be better and brighter than you've dared to hope.

Nonwhite and white, rich and poor, born to an unwed mother or weathering divorce, over half of all children in the current generation will live in a single-parent family--and these children simply will not fare as well as their peers who live with both parents. This is the clear and urgent message of this powerful book. Based on four national surveys and drawing on more than a decade of research, Growing Up with a Single Parent sharply demonstrates the connection between family structure and a child's prospects for success. What are the chances that the child of a single parent will graduate from high school, go on to college, find and keep a job? Will she become a teenage mother? Will he be out of school and out of work? These are the questions the authors pursue across the spectrum of race, gender, and class. Children whose parents live apart, the authors find, are twice as likely to drop out of high school as those in two-parent families, one and a half times as likely to be idle in young adulthood, twice as likely to become single parents themselves. This study shows how divorce--particularly an attendant drop in income, parental involvement, and access to community resources--diminishes children's chances for well-being. The authors provide answers to other practical questions that many single parents may ask: Does the gender of the child or the custodial parent affect these outcomes? Does having a stepparent, a grandmother, or a nonmarital partner in the household help or hurt? Do children who stay in the same community after divorce fare better? Their data reveal that some of the advantages often associated with being white are really a function of family structure, and that some of the advantages associated with having educated parents evaporate when those parents separate. In a concluding chapter, McLanahan and Sandefur offer clear recommendations for rethinking our current policies. Single parents are here to stay, and their worsening situation is tearing at the fabric of our society. It is imperative, the authors show, that we shift more of the costs of raising children from mothers to fathers and from parents to society at large. Likewise, we must develop universal assistance programs that benefit low-income two-parent families as well as single mothers. Startling in its findings and trenchant in its analysis, Growing Up with a Single Parent will serve to inform both the personal decisions and governmental policies that affect our children's--and our nation's--future.

Whether you became a single parent through divorce, death, adoption, or some other situation, you've probably wondered what the future holds for you and your children. Will you be able to provide the emotional, financial, and spiritual support your family needs? The Single Parent will encourage you in your journey and help avert problems before they arise. It is filled with wise counsel, biblical truth, and real-life stories--the author's own as well as those of the many single moms and dads who have come across her path through the years. It will help you bolster your abilities in such areas as · improving your child's behavior · negotiating boundaries · graciously seeking and accepting help from others · trusting God in the process God cares for the single parent and will provide for you and your children. Let this book give you the tools you need as you walk with him in this journey.

The successful treatment of boys with behavior problems from the youngest ages to the teenage years is an enormous challenge to everyone involved. Aggression in youth is a major public health problem in this country and a burden on their families and communities. Boys who do not listen and who are aggressive are the most frequent visitors to child mental health clinics. They obtain help from caring professionals in clinics and private offices. But, parents who live with their sons and are most involved have a role that is important and crucial for success. Based on his practice and research, Dr Passley describes parenting practices that have not worked well for the single mother. He moves from these examples to describe more effective ways to handle difficult situations that lead to improved and strengthened mother-son relationships. He gives clear and simple rules for effective parenting and recommends how best to deal with the topic of the absent father. Passley skillfully presents the most important parenting tasks facing the single mother: building self-esteem, establishing boundaries, and establishing male role models for her son. His suggestions are easy to understand and presented with the assurance that they will work. The author has an excellent understanding that stems from his academic interest and years of clinical experience as a child psychologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He directly addresses the single mother and provides her with a recipe to gain control of her family.

Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of single parenting—one of the toughest, most thankless jobs in Universe. The good news is that you’re not alone. Over the last decade the ranks of single parents has swelled to a whopping ten million in the United States alone, forcing business and government to accommodate more of your needs. Also, society’s perceptions of single parents have changed. It’s now perfectly acceptable, even admirable to be a single mom or dad. Still, unless you’re independently wealthy and have nothing to do but work at being a perfect parent, you can use all the help you can get in making single parenting work for you and your kids. Single Parenting For Dummies to the rescue! Whether you’re already a single parent or soon to become one, this warm, friendly guide will be a source of encouragement and ideas. Packed with proven solutions to most of the challenges single parents face, it show you how to: Balance work and family life Develop strong relationships with your kids Help kids adjust to the trauma of divorce Manage your time—and money Develop a successful co-parenting plan Deal with dating and remarriage Raise happy, healthy well-adjusted kids Know when to seek professional help and how to find it Drawing upon their own experiences and expertise and the experiences of single parents whose stories they share throughout the book, psychotherapist Marion Peterson and bestselling self-help author Diane Warner, cover all the bases, including: Adjusting to single parent status Managing your time and sharing resources with other single parents Avoiding the five biggest single parent money mistakes Keeping close to your kids and considering their point of view Developing a co-parenting plan and making sure all parties stick to it Dealing peacefully with stepparents and former in-laws Keeping your cool when resolving parenting problems Staying physically and psychologically fit Yes, you can raise happy, healthy well-adjusted kids while keeping your sanity and your health in tact, and now Single Parenting For Dummies shows you how.