Description

The 4-Hour 2 Parents, 2 Homes Parenting Class is also known as a co-parenting course, divorce course, shared parenting course and a divorce seminar. It meets the requirements for: COPE class, seminar for divorcing parents, child impact seminar, pre-divorce seminar, and divided yet united course. Courts require that parents of minor children, who are divorcing or breaking up, complete a parenting course, just like this one, before finalizing orders for visitation, custody, or child support.

Divorce is hard on any family, both for the parents and especially the children. Naturally tensions will rise and it is easy for conflict to get away from them. During divorce, the family is forced to change, their home, habits, routines, finances, and even school districts. With each change, there is the opportunity for conflict. Both parents and their children will fight for what they want and need. When life changes rapidly, the desire to cling to familiarity or control becomes stronger - leading to more conflict. During these times, it is especially hard to compromise with the other parent.

Regardless of conflict between the parents, it is important to remember a child’s needs. The child will of course need the basics of sleep, nutrition, stability, and the love of both parents. So, it is helpful to have a roadmap as you try to keep a hard situation from turning into something worse. It is important to protect children and keep their life as stable as possible. Children caught in the middle are traumatized and sometimes a parent will try to hurt the other parent by weaponizing a child. Other times children can be witness to terrible and even violent arguments, the impact of which will haunt them for years. Many of these traumas are inflicted on children unbeknownst to their parents. There are also many arguments that can be avoided by teaching cooperation, conflict management, and how to deal with loss – all of which, and more, are covered in this class.

The 2 Parents 2 Homes Parenting Class (also called "Parent Education & Family Stabilization Course") covers the following topics:

• Ending the Relationship
• Mediation vs. Litigation
• Grieving, Loss, and Healing
• Dealing with Loss Effectively
• Developmental Stages of Childhood and how divorce affects children
• Communicating with Children
• Communicating with your Other Parent
• Conflict Management Strategies
• Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, and Divorce
• Legal Matters of Divorce
• Cooperative Parenting
• Parallel Parenting
• Parenting Plan