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 Diane & Rick reach into the mailbag and answer several listener questions about common topics facing parents with impossibles on the other side. They discuss a variety of topics on the show and give episode reference numbers for listeners to hea...

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 three types of grief parents can experience after separation and divorce. They focus on complicated and ambiguous grief, when the natural healing process is interrupted by toxic co-parents or alienating behaviors. Also discu...

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 take a deep dive into what parental alienation feels like from the child’s perspective. From having trust issues in relationships to learning to lie to survive, they explore the destructive impact alienation has for children long-te...

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 unique episode, Diane and Rick stay silent (shocking :-), so the voices of alienated parents can be heard. They discuss their personal pain, but more importantly, how alienation deeply hurts the children and their relationships with siblings...

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 Author Dana Laquidara joins the show to discuss her memoir, You Know Who , referring to the mother she was never allowed to talk about as a child. This episode drives home the concept that alienating a child from a parent has lifetime negative conse...

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 welcome author William McGee to discuss his novel, Half the Child . The main character in the book struggles with parental alienation and naively thinks the court will rule in the best interests of the child. He has a rude awakening...

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 begin Season 4 with the final chapter of the Case from Hell.  If you haven’t listened to Season 2, binge it before listening to this emotional episode that describes Diane’s experience attending Sarah’s final hearing. This is the pe...

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 David asks if he should ask the court for more time with his kids because of alienating behaviors he suspects their mom is encouraging. Diane & Rick discuss the risks of making an already insecure parent more insecure by further court action and...

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 Tom emails a question  about how to respond when his co-parent goes silent on a time-sensitive decision and how to react to the children, who seem to be using the same passive-aggressive techniques with him. Diane & Rick discuss how to resolve 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 respond to an email from Janelle who struggles to please her co-parent without being walked on, and at the same time is afraid to set boundaries for fear her ex and the court will see her as a "bad" co-parent. They discuss...

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 Janelle wonders if it is okay to snoop on her child’s phone and worries that if the other parent finds out, he will be upset.  Diane & Rick wonder why this is even a question and discuss the importance of managing phone use, regardless...

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 problem of others, like family, friends, and untrained professionals, guilting high-conflict co-parents into trying harder to “just get along”. They explore ideas on how to talk to kids about difficult subjects when one...

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 how parents should respond when they feel their child is recording them to gather evidence for their other parent. Or are they? They explore the importance of talking to kids about consent in our digital world, but also what...

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 Cassie’s question about her step-son’s mother - who freezes him out if he acts like he had a good time with dad. They discuss the destructive nature of this type of emotional manipulation, as well as the consequences for his...

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 Kymberly shares that her boyfriends’s ex-wife is so angry at her that she confronts her with name calling and threats during custody exchanges and activities. Diane & Rick discuss the importance of following the same rules in front of 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 address Richard’s question about wanting more time with his son than his co-parent’s nanny gets. Discussed are the dangers of stereotypes and bias, the perils of making blanket statements, coming up with creative options when you do...

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 Kim writes to the show and expresses her frustration with her co-parent, who made an appointment with a counselor for their child without telling her. She then calls the counselor, who tells Kim some disturbing things about her process that causes D...

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 episode, Diane and Rick explore listener Deanne’s question about a co-parent who uses his religion to control and emotionally abuse the children. The hosts discuss how difficult it can be when extreme religious, cultural, political, and soci...

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 how some impossible co-parents interpret what is NOT in the parenting plan to exercise control and manipulation. They discuss examples they have had in their careers as well as read a Facebook post from listener Monique abou...

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 subject of what to do when a child calls from the other home, complaining about your co-parent and seems distressed. How do you determine if it is serious or just venting? Do you stop answering after more than one call?...

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 A Reddit listener poses a common question about how to spend their first hour with a guardian ad litem in order to make a good impression. Diane & Rick discuss the weight of that responsibility and how stressful it can be. They pose several ques...

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 James’ question about the extremes his children experience between him and their mom. He is the relaxed parent and she is very rigid. Does it harm children to have such different parents? Do they need to be on the s...

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 Heather wonders how to talk to her 11-year-old son about her co-parent’s marijuana use. He’s asking a lot of detailed questions, and she wants him to be able to trust his instincts. Are there times when telling the truth is beneficial to your child?...

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 Brittany writes to share her experience of using our DRAGON method to solve her childcare issue, rather than trying to convince her co-parent to help out. Diane & Rick discuss the value and emotional freedom of finding a Plan B.  Diane...

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 characteristics of “good” people who fall prey to coercively controlling partners. They discuss the need to emotionally manage the reaction of their partners, to be a good co-parent, and to be fully understood as the tra...