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 and Rick host a special 6-part-series for Season 2 of the podcast, showcasing a real-life and extremely difficult custody case. In this episode, they present the timeline that spans 7 years of court documents, police reports, child protective...

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 and Rick respond to a listener review that takes issue with the idea of giving difficult parents the benefit of the doubt. She wonders if that is encouraging further emotional abuse. They respond by explaining the difference between feeling a...

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 Thomas from Ontario shares his dilemma about attending his toddler’s doctors appointments, while having to endure his co-parent’s drama or failure to inform him. Diane and Rick use the process outlined in their new journal (DRAGON) to unpack this co...

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 Tamika from Alabama wonders why her co-parent persists in finding the bad in her, especially since she is trying so hard to be a good co-parent. Diane & Rick break it down and discuss how grieving parents or high conflict people use cognitive di...

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 a listener question about 50/50 custody and the nightmare of keeping track of clothing between houses, as well as how difficult the schedule can be for kids of high-conflict co-parents. They also talk about the BIG REVEAL an...

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 Rhonda asks for advice about how to deal with a mom who is falsely accusing stepmom of abuse and who goes to extremes to destroy her life. Diane and Rick discuss various roles in the family system and how they need to be clear to protect the childre...

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 listener wonders if it’s healthy to spend family time with her co-parent and her son, even though she considers her ex her enemy! If she keeps pretending to be nice, is that an insurance policy to keep him from taking her back to court? Diane 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 Diane & Rick addresses a listener’s question about how to help her upset daughter whose dad won’t let her go to a birthday party on his parenting time, unless mom agrees to take her. The real problem here is that both parents have put the daught...

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 pose a variety of questions, begging rational answers, about the role of Guardians ad litem in custody cases. Prompted by questions from a professional and a co-parent, they explore how professional delays and continuing court cases...

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 Patrick’s question about his fear of having structure and rules in his home. He worries that after a couple of years of being the fun house, setting rules now might make his house unattractive to the kids. Meanwhile, his co-...

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 Danielle’s dilemma about her co-parent trying to befriend her parents during the divorce process. She’s feeling stuck in the middle between her whining ex and her too-friendly parents. Also, discussed in this episode is adul...

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 One of the most difficult situations co-parents have to deal with is when there are secrets kept between them. Secrets are usually pretty important topics and should probably be disclosed to the other co-parent, and if the children are involved in 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 take a vacation break and replay one of the show’s most popular episodes - Narcissists in the Courtroom. They’ll return next week with an intriguing dilemma called Daddy’s Little Secret. Don’t miss it! For more information about 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 Aaron asks an interesting email question about when it is best to reveal to a new dating partner that you have a very difficult co-parent. Diane & Rick not only address Aaron’s concerns, but talk about dating with children in general. Good co-pa...

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 Rachel emails about various things her children report about their father’s house that she is not okay with. Diane and Rick explore the definition of good enough parenting and the importance of discerning the children’s feeling about what they repor...

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 mid-week Bonus episode is an introduction to Bill and Jen Rogers’ podcast called Stepfamily Mission Possible . To listen to other episodes about blending families, find them on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Congressional School - 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 Diane & Rick address Carolina’s email about her hateful ex-husband, who is remarried with a new baby five years after the divorce - but still has a major axe to grind with her even though she is trying to include him in major decisions.  What ca...

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 Rodney has a two-year-old with his ex-girlfriend. He ended the relationship because she was constantly taunting him into a violent interchange, which he refused to do. Now, she won’t let him see the child unless he comes to her home, which makes him...

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 tackle some big questions they’ve been asked on social media that are common, but don’t have simple solutions. They attempt to give their best foundational assessment  of each one, and get personal while they’re at it! Congressional...

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 Attorney, Lauren, emails about her client, who continually gives into his co-parent out of fear she will turn the kids against him. Lauren worries this is going to ruin his new marriage if he doesn’t stop catering to his ex. Diane & Rick talk ab...

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 Jake emails about how to get his co-parent to follow the weekly email protocol. He’s tired of answering her multiple texts each day and wants to have some peace. Diane & Rick discuss the importance of setting the boundary and staying consistent...

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 Dena’s email questions about her co-parent who tells their 9-year-old that the divorce is all mom’s fault. She is exhausted that he won’t listen to their co-parent counselor or take responsibility for his substance abuse issu...

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 Colin writes that his co-parent’s purposeful resistance to anything he wants or suggests is driving him nuts. He wonders how he will stand to deal with her for the next 15 years! Diane & Rick discuss how to prioritize issues and learn to give th...

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 and Rick talk about listener reviews and discuss what they learned in their trip to Chicago, attending the AFCC (Association for Family and Conciliation Courts ) annual conference. They report on themes learned at the conference about high-con...

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 Andy writes in about his alienated 16-year-old daughter and the hurt and pain of not having a relationship with her. He wonders if she is becoming a narcissist like her mom and if it would simply be better to give up on her. Diane & Rick discuss...