From the acclaimed best-selling author of Your Baby amp Child and one of the worldrsquos leading experts on child development and parenting apractical comprehensively researched guide to doing the bestfor your child during and after separation or divorce Recent research clarifies why parentsmdashfathers as much as mothersmdashare so crucial to children of all ages and how their separation can turn childrenrsquos lives upside down Drawing on the latest scientific findings as well as on hermany years of professional and personal work with children Penelope Leach describes how parentscan minimize the impact of separation and divorce on children through the six stages of a childrsquos life from infancy to adulthood She helps parents find ways to continue being fathers and mothers when they are no longer husbands and wives She explains recent studies that overturn numerous common assumptions revealing for example that many standard custody arrangements can undermine young childrenrsquos attachment to parents and in the case of infants even negatively affect their brain development that unless infants and toddlers are already closely attached to both parents regular overnights with the noncustodial parent may be damaging and that dividing a childrsquos time equally between the parents may be ldquofairrdquo to them but seldom is best for the childAnd throughout Leach grounds her approach with anecdotal evidence presented in the voices of children and parents themselvesLeachrsquos child-centered advice profoundly thoughtful and thorough tackles the issues from every anglemdashemotional scientific psychological practical legalmdashcovering everything from access custody and financialconsiderations to managing separate sets of technology in two houses Above all she is insistent that for the sake of their future developmentthe needs of children must be put first She is persuasively clear that mutual parenting while seldom easyis the best way forward for both the parents and the children.
