Positive advice for divorced dads and their families The country's leading authority on fathers' rights Jeffery M. Leving presents a definitive how-to resource for divorced dads of any age, background, and marriage history. Leving offers targeted guidance and suggests techniques for staying connected with children and dealing with ex-wives—and in some cases a new girlfriend or the wife's new boyfriend—during the divorce and afterwards. This upbeat book offers good news for divorced dads and counters many of the myths that paint divorcing fathers as alienated, irresponsible, or absent. Includes advice for overcoming limited access to children with cooperative responses and legal remedies if necessary Reveals how to avoid depression and feelings of guilt that can cause a divorced dad to give up and lose connection with his kids Offers ideas for responding to an ex-wife's remarriage, moving, unfounded accusations, and other common issues Contains guidance for engaging in new relationships and possibly remarriage How to Be a Good Divorced Dad is practical and down-to-earth and offers dozens of real life examples of dads who have discovered the importance of staying involved in their children's lives.

Millions of families strive to give their children the best possible upbringing after being split apart by divorce. Separated mothers and fathers -- and in many cases their second spouses -- struggle to find the right way to piece together parent-child relationships in its wake. In this revolutionary work, psychologist Sanford L. Braver -- who undertook the largest ever federally funded study on issues confronting divorced fathers -- shows how millions of well-intentioned mothers, fathers, judges, lawyers, educators, and other caregivers have been repeatedly and tragically misled by the prevailing data about divorce and parenthood.For years our society has accepted the image of the "dead-beat dad" who shirks childcare payments and other responsibilities. Yet Braver proves that this villainous figure -- like many other myths of the divorced parent -- simply does not exist in significant numbers. Moreover, Braver overturns one of the most important pieces of data on divorce in the past quarter-century: the belief that divorced women suffer a steep decline in their standard of living. This widely embraced notion was the result of misread data, but was transformed into "fact" by the media and the courts, and accepted by divorced families and their advocates.No other book has revealed the deep flaws in today's research on divorce. One-sided studies of divorced men and women, misused census data, and poor research have skewed many of the assumptions around which parents and courts have shaped divorce settlements, parenting responsibilities, and child-rearing decisions. Every divorced parent -- and anyone who loves a divorced parent -- urgently needs this book to understand the newrealities behind divorce and parenting. Notes. Index.

Whether sudden or years in the making, divorce can leave families with a lot of pain and uncertainty—and with the children in the mix, the stakes are even higher. Enter author Paul Mandelstein, the divorced father of four children and founder of the Father Resource Network (FRN). In The World's Best Dad During and After Divorce: A Guide to Co-Parenting for Divorced Dads, Mandelstein helps fathers (and mothers) discover a path to navigate the stormy waters of divorce and create a healthy extended family environment, guided by the principles of collaboration and cooperation. Packed with advice from family counseling experts, anecdotes from divorced parent groups, interviews with fathers, mothers, and children, and the author’s own first-hand experiences, The World's Best Dad During and After Divorce is a realistic, yet compassionate approach to parenting during and after divorce. The user-friendly format combines bulleted lists with practical suggestions, exercises, and even sample dialogues that make even the most difficult conversations with children and former spouses more manageable. Most importantly, this guidebook empowers men to be the best fathers they can be: fathers who are present and accountable, loving and leading, competent and caring.

Diaries of a Forgotten Parent: Divorced Dads on Fathering Through and Beyond Divorce opens an intimate window on the lives of divorced men. Literature on divorce focuses primarily on its effects on women and children, but fair and personal accounts of the lived experiences of custodial and non-custodial fathers are less available. In this highly accessible text, ten American men share intensely personal reflections of guilt, pain, frustration, sacrifice, loneliness and pride. The men do not see themselves as exemplary; rather, their stories are graphically honest, revealing what Paterson calls ordinary men “with all their warts.” The author reviews significant works on the male experience of divorce from psychological, legal, educational and sociological experts, interspersing commentary and research with the men’s own voices. From the initial discussion of why men marry and why they divorce through the men’s painful memories of being pushed out of their children’s lives by angry and resentful mothers, the author illuminates the legal, fiscal, emotional and practical experiences of men struggling to reinvent their fathering while they find themselves reconfigured into deserters, deadbeats and visitors. The societal myth that fathers are less valuable parents than mothers is thoroughly deconstructed in this text. The book will help divorced and divorcing men and those who work with them to fully understand the experiences of fathers who never stopped loving and caring for their children, in spite of the fact that the contributions of fathers are still largely discounted by schools, courts, and worst of all, by their children’s mothers. From this book, readers will understand that there are just too many reasons why fathers must never be forgotten in the lives of their children.

At last, the confused and hurt father, experiencing the loss of marriage, family life, and routine contact with his children, can find calm and loving guidance in how to live in changed circumstances. So much written about divorce and single parenting is addressed to women. Until recently, a caring father has had relatively little guidance for his conduct in the painful process of dismantling a traditional family and establishing a new basis for relating to his former spouse and his children. Gerald S. Mayer, in The Divorced Dad Dilemma, provides this critically needed guidance in an authoratative, gentle, and thorough manner.

This book provides practical hard-to-find help to fathers who are separated from their kids. It covers various relevant areas from legal and financial to emotional and recreational. This work is delivered in a down-to-earth and accessible style. Contents: 1. Separation; 2. Seeing your kids:the first few months; 3. Contact arrangements; 4. Court orders: dealing with family courts; 5. Mediation services; 6. Your financial responsibility to your children; 7. Ongoing parenting: become a great dad; 8. Building your own support network; 9. Paternity issues; 10. Parent Alienation Syndrome; Useful contacts; Index.

Demonstrating clearly how to navigate the process of getting a divorce while minimizing the negative impact on one's children, this guide shows how fathers can use the divorce process to cultivate and improve a healthy relationship with their kids.