Family Breakdown: Helping children hang on to both their parents - Softcover

Divorcing or separating feels like overwhelmingly adult business, but if children are involved it is very much their business as well. This book is written for separating mothers and fathers, for their extended families and prospective new partners, and for the professionals who support and advise them. Above all, this book is written to help those grown-ups do better by children.

This book is full of ways to minimise the impact of separation. You'll discover – often in their own words – what children of different ages are likely to understand and feel about the process, along with ways to help them cope. There's research to help guide you through those dreadfully difficult decisions about access and custody; information about money and legal matters; and suggestions about handovers, holidays and more.

"Mutual parenting" is not easy to achieve, but it is the best possible way forward from family breakdown.

Penelope Leach is a research psychologist and one of the world’s leading experts in child development. Her bestselling books on child development for parents include Your Baby and Child and The Essential First Year. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Visiting Professor at Winchester University and a Senior Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London and at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust.

She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and has been Vice President of the Health Visitors' Association, President and Chair of the Child Development Society and President of the National Childminding Association. In all these roles she has always been a powerful advocate for the needs of children and families