Co-Parent Dilemmas

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Today, we are replaying one of our most popular episodes entitled “Narcissists in Co-Parenting.” After this episode, we are taking a podcast pause for a little while to re-evaluate where we go from here. There is a lot of content for you to listen t...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick discuss the issues that arise when a co-parent is accused of parental alienation or child abuse. What drives the accusation, and what can be done to enlighten court professionals?  THIS WEEK’S GOOD NEWS STORY Congressional School -...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick answer listener Rachel’s question about how to respond to her kids when their dad has asked them to keep a secret from her.  They explore different ways kids are put in the middle with secret-keeping and the risks associated with it...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick discuss some of their most difficult co-parent cases after listener Devin emails, wondering if any case is possibly worse than his! They discuss the importance of professionals working with the non-impossible parent   VIEW THE VIDEO...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Thomas asks how to respond to his 13-year-old son, who declares extreme political ideology that Thomas knows is coming from the other house. Should he respond? Stay silent? How do you counteract extreme ideas or values that go against yours...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Bethany calls in with a frustrating dilemma, and Jeff emails about a similar frustration. Diane & Rick discuss how difficult it is to be placed in a position of choosing your own peace vs. your child’s emotional welfare. This seemingly impossibl...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick bring together a group of pediatricians and moms who have difficult co-parents to discuss innovative ways to work together. Kids of divorce often get stuck in the middle when a high-conflict co-parent weaponizes the medical communit...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Utah listener Heather wonders what more she can do to protect her two sons from their verbally abusive father. The 14-year-old explodes with dad, while the 13-year-old son witnesses the drama and tries to keep things from getting worse. Diane& R...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Texas listener, Christa, answers a challenge Diane made in a previous episode to give her any dilemma, and she would suggest a viable Plan B. Diane & Rick discuss whether or not what Christa presents are co-parenting dilemmas or general parentin...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Todd asks if he should validate his child’s feelings, even when she says she doesn’t like him? How far does a parent go, and are feelings valid (representing truth) or simply experiences to be understood? Diane & Rick suggest it’s impor...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE This is a REPLAY of one of the show’s most popular episodes (S4.E17.).  We’ll be back with new episodes next week. Diane and Rick look at a conflict that on the surface might seem easy to resolve for the Non-Impossible parent. But upon further explo...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Ben has been awarded custody of his daughter after the court determined her mother was alienating her from dad. He asks how to best parent his daughter after the trauma of alienation. Diane & Rick break it down and provide helpful, non-...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Kristen asks advice about her 9-year-old reengaging with his dad, who has been an extremely inconsistent parent. Diane & Rick discuss the harm to children when a parent consistently disappoints them by moving in and out of their lives....

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick respond to recent social media posts about first right of refusal, a clause in some parenting plans that requires co-parents to give the other parent the option of being with the children when they are unable to fulfill their court-...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Kyle asks what the best holiday split is for teens. Diane & Rick ask a deeper question about what drives holiday negotiation in the beginning, when grief is most prominent. They discuss the importance of seeing the holidays through the...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick address listener Laura’s dilemma with her ex-wife, who decided to introduce their two children to the donor dad’s family without her permission. They discuss the complications that come with divorce and adopted children, as well as...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE In this third of a three-part series of why critical co-parenting skills work, Diane & Rick explore the importance of utilizing a Plan B when conflict arises. Somewhere between Plan A (a successful negotiation) and Plan C (going to court), there...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick address Emily’s email about her know-it-all co-parent. They discuss the goal of utilizing a structured way of communicating and why it succeeds in managing the toxic co-parent, while ant the same time, adhering to a parenting plan t...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Trenton wants advice on how to respond to his 10-year-old daughter when she expresses frustration about going between two homes. In this first of a three-part series on why critical co-parenting skills work, Diane and Rick discuss the feeli...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Georgina asks about the consequences of moving her 12-year-old daughter away from her dad. They discuss the reasons why she is feeling the need to escape and how helping her daughter develop appropriate coping skills may neutralize the movi...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE At the prompting of a loyal listener, who is also a pediatrician, Diane & Rick address issues that come up in high-conflict co-parenting that medical professionals often do not understand.  They provide suggestions to professionals to assist tho...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick discuss what parenting coordination is, how it differs from co-parent counseling, who qualifies to be a PC, and what should be expected in the process. Mentioned in this episode are guidelines that most trained professionals follow....

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Listener Heather wonders how she should respond to her 14-year-old son who, out of the blue, has decided not to return from the other parent’s house. Should she fight for him or let him have his way? Diane and Rick talk about the dilemma some teens...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick explore the not often talked about subject of the pain of the alienated step-parent. Listener Tanner writes in to ask how to deal with the guilt of not being able to fight for a step-daughter who has only known him as a father figur...

Have a quick question to be explored on the show? Send us a text message! Include your email address if you would like a personal response. Click HERE Diane & Rick address listener Mindy’s dilemma around the struggle between her and her co-parent around medical decision-making. They discuss conflicts around common childhood issues such as ADHD, sensory disorders, anxiety, autism, dental appoin...