The impact of destructive conflict between coparents on children differs in relation to what the conflicts are about.

Research studies have found that conflicts between coparents about finances and those about parenting time have the greatest negative impact on children.

Why does financial conflict have a disproportionally greater negative impact on children?

Divorce is, in many cases, extremely financially costly.

The cost of divorce forces many families to make financial readjustments. Some will experience serious financial consequences.  Parents may believe their financial well-being is threatened. The economic impacts of divorce may significantly increase stress and emotional distress of parents leading to high levels of conflict between parents of the kind that children are aware.

Children experience the parent's stress and conflict together with the concrete ways family economic circumstances are changing. Together, this kind of conflict tends to have...

I sense your hesitation. 

The headline caught your attention.

There is so much you have tried to understand about your partner while simultaneously trying to bury in your subconscious the truth of who they are. Oh, the stories we won't let our own selves live with.

There is rarely a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  Why would there be? As you've heard leave their lips often enough..."There is nothing wrong with ME! You're the one with the problem. "

Knowing is not easy.  Especially if you were drawn in by a narcissists charm.

Not knowing?

Not knowing is not easy.

But it may be a way to push you beyond the  blaming of yourself for outcomes the narcissist feigns to have no involvement in.

You being here and reading this tells me that, you, my dear, are ready to break free from the toxicity of being in a relationship with a narcissist, ready to break free from the feelings of profound isolation, guilt, being in a never-ending battle, feeling...

Communication and negotiation with a nightmare of a coparent seems impossible. It's not! The science behind conflict resolution techniques will keep you calm, cool, courageous, and confident as you steer the healthy course for yourself and your children.

Lilly and Mark have an agreement where they share custody and alternate week-ends of their daughter Sally.  Mark is scheduled to have parenting time with Sally on an upcoming week-end beginning Friday. On Thursday evening, Mark calls Lilly to say that he has just been invited snowboarding and tells Lilly they will have to switch week-ends.  He will take Sally the next week-end and Lilly will keep Sally this weekend. Mark needs to know now that Lilly will alternate week-ends.

 Lilly has plans for this week-end and does not want to switch last minute.

 Mark remembers that in the mediator's office 6 months earlier, Lilly had said she would agree to alternate week-ends if conflicts came up. However,...

Check out the live Q & A with Dr. Jodi Peary were she answers questions about narcissistic coparents and what to do when your coparent has their romantic interest move in with them.

 Enlightened CoParenting ™ provides a science backed road map to guide you in teaching and coparenting your child while promoting their confidence and self-esteem. Any parent can learn healthy coparenting if they have the right tools.

I want to be the first to know when the Enlightened CoParenting doors open again for enrollment!

Hey there!
I want to answer one of my most frequently asked questions:
Is it worth it for me to learn enlightened coparenting if I am coparenting with a narcissist?

Parents with pathological narcissism tend to engage in behavior that is damaging toward the other parent and children. It is not so much the loss of contact with the child that triggers them as their experience that that person should be available to them and is  not. They experience the loss of what the child provided to them.

These are the characteristics I see in these situations.

See if you recognize any of these characteristics:
Treat child as an extension of themselves, not as a unique individual with their own needs and feelings different from the parents.

Fighting over issues big and small.

Overreaction and drama to imagined slights.

When threatened with the loss of control over their own children, they look to the child to have their own ego needs for love and approval met.

Self absorbed and unresponsive to...