"In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted and bent in weird ways and they're still beautiful." Alice Walker

There aren't any perfect families. You know that intellectually but I am calling upon you to also know this in your heart. I am speaking to you from two different generations. First, your family when you were a child and second, your own family today.

If you had a pretty easy going childhood, why postpone celebrating your family's gorgeous idiosyncrasies and eccentricities? Allow this to inspire you to also celebrate the idiosyncrasies and eccentricities in the family you have as an adult. Our families don't need to be perfect but they do need to hold a space for each family member to be and feel loved. If you have recently divorced, you may worry that you won't be able to give your children the good experience you had. That is a myth. You can and will give your children time and space filled with love.

If childhood was full of challenges,...

Conversations about family change are essential, but where to start?

Changes to a family, such as divorce or the addition of a step-parent, can have a major impact on the emotional health of children. It can be difficult for a child to understand why the changes are happening and difficult to express their feelings about the changes. 

Enlightened CoParenting includes emotion-focused parenting to support children in identifying and communicating the emotions they are experiencing.

Create a starting point for children to share there thoughts and feelings, while providing opportunities to beginbimportant conversations like "why" and "what next?".

The My Changing Family Worksheet is a perfect activity for beginning or continuing conversations with children about how family life is changing. It lists six compassionate and creative ways to begin the conversation about family changes with children. These questions are great starter points for answering the multitude of "WHY?"...