Kids cause conflicts in many marriages. How these issues get resolved has important consequences not only for your children but for the health of your marriage.
Disagreements about child rearing are not only inevitable but healthy. Discussion and debate can result in new insights and help you think about issues in a different way. Parents shouldn’t be reluctant to respectfully challenge their partner’s perspective. I like George Patton’s comment that, “if everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
Parental conflicts are usually ones of strategy and, typically, are easy to resolve. In these situations, both parents agree on the goal but have very different paths to get there.
Amy’s parents rearranged their busy schedule to have dinner together almost every night. Four-year-old Amy was not always the most cooperative. Mom reported that several times a month Amy would cry during dinner for no apparent reason and crawl into her lap.
This was fine with Amy’s mom, who felt that her daughter simply needed some reassurance and security. Since this happened so infrequently, she just didn’t understand her husband’s overreaction. Dad felt that Amy was being manipulative and this behavior ruined dinner “almost every night.”
Since the parents had the … Read More... “Are Child Raising Strategies Causing Conflict in Your Marriage?”
The lazy, hazy days of summer are coming to an end, as a new school year is quickly approaching. My wife, a school teacher of 30 plus years, suggested that we post an article about this topic of starting the school year well. So with her help, here it is.
For those of you who follow our blog, you already know that local child psychologist Dr. Greg Ramey is a frequent contributor. Dr. Ramey is the vice president for outpatient services at Dayton Children’s and writes FamilyWise, a weekly 
The continued post-divorce acrimony that plays out in the arena of parenting is the probably the most aggravating and stressful part of divorce for all involved. Parents struggle with a sense of wanting to make this transition easy for their children but when left over marital issues continue to play out in the co parenting arena, the adults often throw up their hands in frustration. The continued conflict is worrisome as it is the fighting, not marital status, that hurts the kids.
This topic is an exceedingly broad one, but I will try to share my insights from my perspective as a practicing family law attorney for the past 34 years. The original idea to write this article was that of Connecticut psychotherapist, Donna Ferber. I thought it was a great idea of hers to tackle this subject; from both a therapist’s perspective and a lawyer’s perspective. Here is the link to Donna’s perceptive take about parenting with an uncooperative parent in her blog article, 
Five-year-old Landon loves for his Aunt Michelle to read him bedtime stories. He snuggles in his bed with his special blanket and an extra pillow and gets all comfortable while he follows along with his favorite book. This bedtime routine occurs every few weeks, even though his aunt lives hundreds of miles away. Landon and his aunt are connected by a video conference call with a camera easily installed on any computer. He watches and listens to his aunt on a laptop computer as she reads to him.
Parenting is a challenging job. The physical, emotional, and financial demands seem endless. It feels as if we are always sacrificing what we want for the sake of our kids. Our dreams get delayed and often denied, as we usually put our kids as the highest priority in our lives.