Couples who have experienced the trauma of divorce and are trying to co-parent their children in the best possible way, will find this book extremely helpful.

This book is a true breakthrough for co-parents struggling to positively interact or who want to get it right from the beginning. I highly recommend it!

Combative to Collaborative: The Co-Parenting Code is recommended reading for any stepparent, divorced parent, or blended family member looking for guidelines and concrete steps for co-parenting success. It outlines many pitfalls and processes that will help avoid typical issues and resolve common problems. Its code of conduct will help dissolve the differences between parenting styles and approaches and parents who have personal and ideological differences over how parenting should ideally work.

One shared goal of parents is that they want to do the best for their children. Starting from this common ground, Teresa Harlow surveys what "the best" looks like from different angles, focusing on how a parenting relationship changes these objectives.

Anecdotes from her own experience and those of other co-parents illustrate the difficult move from adversaries to partners, pinpointing revised approaches that ultimately resulted in success stories.

These specific examples outline not only interpersonal obstacles, but challenges that come from a child's other support systems such as school, showing how they may be structured to support only live-in parents: "Some parents are more comfortable being in complete control and shut the other parent out intentionally from information about their child’s education. Some avoid these communications for fear they will turn negative, accusative, or just plain uncomfortable. Others simply don’t think about it. Schools are beginning to recognize that all parents do not live together and are doing more to accommodate the needs of parents and children living in two homes. Some school systems now provide communication to both parents. But this is not always the case."

Discussions include co-parenting ideological challenges along with the mechanics of assuring that blended families and extended families receive their due 'child times' even at major holidays. They acknowledge the special juggling acts that occur at these times.

Blended families and co-parents face a host of obstacles to smooth interactions and cooperative thinking, but with the aid of the practical considerations and creative techniques in Combative to Collaborative, many of these obstacles can be acknowledged and conflicts short-circuited. The reasoned collaborative approaches not only support the children, but both sides of their families and extended relations.

Readers motivated to improve interactions and make better choices must add Combative to Collaborative to their arsenal of positive change!

NOTE: Review to be published in September issue of Midwest Book Review

Teresa's Harlow's book is like a vital GPS that guides couples in their separation and custody arrangements. Her practical tips are respectful reminders of not only the children's needs but those of both parents as well. 

A must-have guide for divorced parents and those parenting separately.