Includes index.

The Breakup -- Take Care of Yourself -- Telling the Children -- The Developmental Ladder -- Zero to Three -- Three-, Four-, and Five-Year-Olds -- Six-, Seven-, and Eight-Year-Olds -- Nine- and Ten-Year-Olds -- Eleven-, Twelve-, and Thirteen-Year-Olds -- Fourteen-, Fifteen-, Sixteen-, and Seventeen-Year-Olds -- College-Age Children -- Vulnerable Children -- What Is the "Best" Time to Divorce? -- Setting Routines and Structure -- Supporting the New Family -- Parent-to-Parent -- A New Kind of Parent -- You and the Law -- Laying the Foundation for Custody and Coparenting -- Custody -- High-Conflict Divorce -- How to Choose the Right Custody for Your Child -- The Post-Divorce Family -- Take Another Close Look at Your Children and at Yourself -- The Overburdened Child -- Parent-Child Alignments -- A New Kind of Teenager -- A New Kind of Father -- A New Kind of Mother -- Second Marriage -- Dating and Sex -- Remarriage -- Insiders and the Remarried Family -- Stepparents -- Blending Two Families -- Holidays and Special Occasions -- Conversations for a Lifetime -- How to Protect Children of Divorce in Young Adulthood.

In the tradition of the best parenting guidebooks comes a new work by renowned child psychologist Judith S. Wallerstein on a subject that vexes millions of American moms and dads: How can you genuinely protect your children during and after divorce? Wallerstein answers this important question with knowledge gathered from thirty years of in-depth interviews with children of divorce and their parents. You'll learn what you should say and do for children at each age and stage of development. You'll discover the many ways that divorce will change your family in the years ahead. You'll understand the challenges of how to be an effective parent outside of marriage, how to choose the custody plan that is best for your child, what you need to know to create a healthy remarriage, and what to say to your children when they reach adulthood. Divorce is not a single event but a lifelong trajectory of changed circumstances that demand a different kind of parenting than we have ever known.

With compassion and wisdom, Wallerstein shows how to create a new kind of family. Her experience has educated her in the ways that work, and in the ways that don't. For the first time, she shares her deep understanding of raising children after divorce, and how you and they can make use of the second chance that divorce can provide.