CoParentSpace: Co-Parenting & Divorce Support

Thursday evening. Your eight-year-old is doing homework at the kitchen table. She asks what day she goes to Daddy's. You say Saturday. She nods, makes a note in her planner, goes back to her maths. She knew. She's confirming. Three months in, the rhythm is starting to feel familiar. Five nights with Mama, two with Daddy, two with Mama, five with Daddy. Every fortnight, the same shape. In...

Tuesday evening. Your four-year-old has eaten about half her dinner. The plate is still on the table. She's holding her stuffed rabbit, the one with the missing ear. You've been thinking all afternoon about how to bring up the conversation about Daddy's new flat. Now you sit down next to her. She looks up, the rabbit in her lap. You say I want to tell you something about Daddy'...

She got her first phone at 11. By 13 it was always in her hand. By 15 she'd stopped letting you see the screen. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about the phone, the privacy, the silence — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science and clinical research. What we cover: • What the phone actually is • The realistic frame • W...

Wednesday, 4:15pm. School pickup. Your child climbs into the car, hands you the lunchbox, and announces that lunch was boring. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about the lunchbox question — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science and clinical research. What we cover: • Whose lunchbox is it • The forgotten lunchbox • What the...

She was reliably using the potty by April. Six weeks of clean undies, the dinosaur ones, the proud announcements at the table. By June, six months after the separation, she's having two accidents a day. Sometimes in undies, sometimes on the rug, sometimes in the bath. She also asks to be carried up the stairs she used to climb. She's started asking for the bottle she gave up at fifteen m...

Friday evening. Your four-year-old is at the door of your home, just back from her week with her co-parent. She has the bag. She has the snacks. She has her shoes on. She doesn't have Bun-Bun. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about the comfort object that travels (and what to do when it doesn't) — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded...

The big religious or cultural holiday your family observes is more than a single day. It's a season, a gathering, often several days of extended family, particular foods, observances that have to happen at particular times, relatives travelling in, a whole structure of meaning and obligation. And now it has to work across two homes. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about reli...

Your child's other parent lives with a mental illness, and it affects their parenting. Perhaps it makes them unpredictable, sometimes withdrawn and unreachable, sometimes volatile. Perhaps it makes them unreliable, or hard for the child to understand, or frightening in certain states. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about mental illness in your co-parent — what actually help...

There's an article in the behaviour module about anxiety after a separation, the ordinary worry that comes with a hard change and eases as the child adjusts. This is a different piece, for a different thing. Some children have anxiety that goes beyond the expected response to a difficult situation, anxiety that's a clinical condition in its own right, persistent and impairing in ways tha...

Tuesday morning. Your seven-year-old is at the breakfast table with their head propped on one hand, eyes half closed, staring at the cereal bowl. They don't want to talk. Their socks are inside out and they don't want to fix them. They're going to fall asleep in maths and the teacher is going to send another note, the third one this month. You ask, quietly, what time they went to be...

Bedtime. Your seven-year-old is already in bed. You've read the chapter. The light is out. You're sitting on the edge of the bed for a minute the way you sometimes do. They're holding the small soft toy that lives under their pillow. They look at the ceiling and say, quietly: was it because I was bad? In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about when your child blames the...

The angry child is impossible to miss. The withdrawn child is the opposite, and that's exactly the problem. Your child has gone quiet. Less chatty, less playful, spending more time alone in their room, giving one-word answers, somehow further away than they used to be. There's no storm to respond to, nothing demanding your attention, just a gradual dimming of the child you knew. In this...

Eleven hours in the air, plus the connection, plus the drive at each end. By the time your child walks through the door, they've been travelling for the better part of a day, across however many time zones sit between the two homes. They're wired and exhausted at once. Their body thinks it's the middle of the night. And you, who haven't seen them in weeks, want to scoop them up...

Thursday evening. Seven twelve. Your ten-year-old is at the dining table with their maths homework spread out. They've been stuck on the same word problem for fifteen minutes. The frustration is building. Your new partner, who's been here for three months now and is making tea in the kitchen, walks over with a mug in each hand, sets one down for you, and leans in to look at the page. In...

The vaccination reminder from the surgery arrived a week ago. The booster is due. The appointment slot you booked is for Thursday afternoon. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about vaccinations and the consent question — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science and clinical research. What we cover: • The default: most appointm...

You're on session four. The mediator has been typing as you talk for the last twenty minutes. They turn the laptop around so both of you can see the screen. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about the parental agreement as a mediation outcome — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science and clinical research. What we cover:...

Thursday afternoon. The school office calls. Your child has a temperature, can you come and collect them. You're at work. You message your Co-Parent. They reply within four minutes: on my way. By the time you've cleared your desk and made it home, your child is asleep on the sofa, paracetamol on the side table, your Co-Parent already gone. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practica...

Tuesday night. You've put the kids to bed. You're sitting on the sofa with the TV on but not really watching. Something has been on your mind for a couple of weeks. The schedule isn't working the way it used to. The Sunday transition has been hard. Your nine-year-old has been quieter in the off-week. Your six-year-old has been having stomach aches before school. You're not sure...

a# 'Do you still love Daddy?' / 'Do you still love Mummy?' In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about untitled — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science and clinical research. What we cover: • What the child is really asking • The shape of an answer that works • What not to say • Age by age • The inverse ques...

The Co-Parent calls you on Tuesday evening. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about when your teen confides in only one parent — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science and clinical research. What we cover: • Why teens choose one • What it does feel like • What it doesn't mean • What the confiding parent should do • What...

Sunday evening. 8:15pm. You're tidying the kitchen when you notice a green folder on the counter, half-open, with what looks like a school newsletter, three worksheets, and a permission slip sticking out at angles. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about the Friday folder problem — what actually helps for separated and divorced parents, and why — grounded in attachment science...

Friday afternoon. The bag is by the door. The car keys are in your hand. Your two-year-old is on the floor in the corridor, on her stomach, both arms wrapped around your ankle. She isn't crying yet. She's doing the quiet version, where the body has decided it isn't moving and the small voice is saying no, no, no, no. In this episode of CoParentSpace we get practical about when your...

Tuesday night. Your son has been crying for forty minutes. He's at his other home tonight. You can hear him on the phone, and your co-parent says, I'm trying everything. You both know what he wants. He wants you. Specifically you. The parent who has done bedtime almost every night since he was born. The voice he knows. The hand he knows. He doesn't want anyone else. In this episode...

Your child is in the school concert next week, or running on sports day, or playing a piece at the recital. They've practised, they're nervous and proud, and they want to be watched. And you're working out the choreography of it. Will the Co-Parent be there too? Where do you sit? Can the two of you be in the same hall without it becoming a thing? What does your child actually want,...

Your child's other parent has an addiction. Maybe it's been clear for years, maybe it's emerged or worsened since the separation. Either way, you're now parenting alongside someone whose relationship with alcohol or drugs affects their reliability, their presence, sometimes their safety, and you're trying to work out what your child can understand, how much contact is okay...