This article is from Syd Sharples, LCSW, the current president of The Collaborative Law Institute of Texas and an Austin-based psychotherapist and collaborative divorce facilitator. You’ve just gotten divorced and darn if it isn’t holiday time. As with many post-divorce experiences, you’re faced with another first: how to spend holidays now that you’re a family living under two roofs. On the one hand, you sense it would be nice for the kids to be able to spend Christmas with both parents and … [Read more...]
After Christmas, ‘Tis The Season for Increased Divorce
The British version of Huffington Post just featured an article by family lawyer Philippa Cunniff that points out something that applies in the U.S. as well -- an uptick in initiating the divorce process immediately after the Christmas holidays. According to her article, the reason for this is twofold: Firstly, the stress and pressure of Christmas - for which family politics has a lot to answer - can be the straw which breaks the camel's back in a marriage already showing signs of … [Read more...]
When Divorced Parents Come Together For Thanksgiving: It Is, Indeed, Possible
When newly-divorced and divorcing parents encounter their first few holiday seasons, it's typically the most challenging time of the year to manage change -- even more so than the start of a new school year. Parents and children alike have to adjust to either alternating Christmases and Thanksgivings, if they've got a standard custody plan, or bouncing between Mom's celebration and Dad's celebration on the same day. Either way, it's a decided change from what was most likely the way it used to … [Read more...]
Chanukah is A Collaborative Holiday: Tips for A Successful Holiday Parenting Plan
This article is from Jodi Lazar, an Austin-based family law attorney with Lazar Law and board member for the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas. Perhaps Chanukah is the ultimate collaborative holiday – so many options for celebrating, none of them wrong. Even the name generates options: Chanukah or Hannukah. It’s okay to spell it either way. You can drop the “h” at the end. You can use one “k” or two. There are even more options for celebrating Chanukah than there are ways to spell it. … [Read more...]
Don’t Let the Grinch Steal the Gift of Your Christmas Spirit After a Divorce
This article is from Carol Mapp, LCSW, an Arlington-based therapist with Integrated Healthworks. For the kind folks of Whooville (for those of you who know The Grinch Who Stole Christmas), the holidays are a time of celebration and joy -- while, for individuals who are recently divorced, it is a time to feel stressed and unhappy in response to the demands of finding gifts, attending events and family gatherings, and entertaining houseguests. In preparation for the upcoming holiday season, here … [Read more...]
A New Year’s Resolution: Divorce With Honor (Don’t Take the Gerbil Hostage)
This blog post is from Melinda L. Eitzen, a collaboratively trained family law attorney with the Dallas-area firm Duffee + Eitzen, LLP. She is also the co-author of “Divorce the Collaborative Way, Is it the way for you?” which is available at Amazon.com. I recently worked on a divorce case where the husband took the family pet hostage as a bargaining chip. It didn’t work out well: Hostage situations rarely do. There is a better way to resolve a divorce, and it’s called collaborative … [Read more...]
Dealing With Christmas Games
We're in the midst of the holiday season, and it's a particularly challenging time for divorcing couples with children, trying to figure out who spends what quality time where. In his latest Huffington Post column, CLI-TX board member Curtis Harrison shares some observations about how the Christmas games sometimes work, and how the collaborative approach can help remove some of the obstacles that divorcing parents might have around the holidays. … [Read more...]
