Family Development

Half of all marriages end. Unfortunately, about 20% of divorces are high-conflict, involving frequent visits to court, allegations of abuse, and chronic disagreements regarding parenting schedules. In response to this conflict, some children become aligned with one parent against the other - even a parent who has done nothing to warrant the hostile rejection of their formerly loving children. These parents are on a painful journey with an uncertain outcome. Surviving Parental Alienation fills the tremendous need for concrete help for these parents.

Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, Alex is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as Alex reviews old tapes—the moment they hear him speak of his crimes—they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, Alex digs deeper and deeper into the case.

Fern Schumer Chapman understands the pain of sibling estrangement firsthand. For the better part of 40 years, she had nearly no relationship with her only brother, despite many attempts at reconnection. Her grief and shame were devastating and isolating. But when she tried to turn to others for help, she found that a profound stigma still surrounded estrangement, and that very little statistical and psychological research existed to help her better understand the rift that had broken up her family. So she decided to conduct her own research....

“Toxic Family Survival Guide” is for anyone who wants to give themselves a fighting chance at happiness and peace in their life, no matter what their early years subjected them to.

Abby's Story is the second book in the Thrown Away Children series by author and foster mum Louise Allen. She doesn't want this baby. She can't look after this baby. She will never be able to love this baby. Little Abby's life begins badly, then just gets worse. Now foster mum Louise and her family must help her deal with the truth of her past to give her the chance of a future.

As we all know, children have a hard time listening when we are yelling at them. Most of the time, we are yelling not because we are trying to make them listen but because we are frustrated, angry, and let’s admit it – helpless! Shouting never helps the situation. We know that, the kids know that, everyone in the universe knows that. But we still shout.

The Happy Sleeper shows parents how to avoid and undo cumbersome sleep habits, putting their babies and little kids on track to a full night's sleep. Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright teach parents that babies have an innate capacity to self-soothe, as well as the brain machinery to sleep well. So why do many families struggle at night? Most do what works today, but don't notice when it's no longer needed tomorrow, and then push harder when it becomes a hindrance the day after that.

If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and this one may be the worst of them all.

Parenting can be such an overwhelming job that it's easy to lose track of where you stand on some of the more controversial subjects at the playground (What if my kid likes to rough house - isn't this ok as long as no one gets hurt? And what if my kid just doesn't feel like sharing?). In this inspiring and enlightening book, Heather Shumaker describes her quest to nail down "the rules" to raising smart, sensitive, and self-sufficient kids.

A mother of four sons herself, Maggie Dent draws on her personal experience - and over four decades work as a teacher, counsellor and now author and speaker - to help build understanding, empathy and compassion for our boys. Maggie shares her five key secrets that every mum needs to know, and uses the voices of men she has worked with and surveyed to reveal what really matters in a boy’s relationship with his mother and other mother figures.

In the real world, people on the autism spectrum need the same kinds of day-to-day skills everyone else needs to be functional! It's true. No matter how high-functioning children with autism or Asperger's may be or may become, they function better as adults if they've had the chance to learn basic skills, from being on time to good personal hygiene. But many reach adulthood without those skills. Enter Jennifer McIlwee Myers, aspie at large.

From author and illustrator Sophie Lucido Johnson comes Love Without Sex, a fascinating three-part Audible Original that explores nontraditional relationships and shows how breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions around love can help us all build stronger, healthier connections to one another. In our culture, the rom-com boy-meets-girl romantic set up is by and large the most persistent love story.

Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government, a pacifist who carries a gun, a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy, a cyberwhiz who hates computers, a robust bon vivant who can be as squeamish as any fop, a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn't merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol.

Hockey Moms laces together the stories of NHL hockey moms like Kelly McDavid and Ema Matthews with those of mothers who never expected their children to set foot on the ice. With insight, warmth, honesty and humour, more than thirty hockey moms share their own journeys as they figure out how to juggle trips to the rink with raising a family, building their own backyard rinks, finding ways to pay for new gear and dealing with the sometimes-heartbreaking setbacks faced along the way.

New Mark Twain! This previously unpublished Twain piece was written 125 years ago, composed in 1876 as a "blind novelette" that Twain planned to launch as a competition for other great writers of the day. The competition never took place, and the story was thought by many to have been lost. This rediscovered gem, with a new introduction and afterword by Roy Blount, Jr., and brilliantly read by Blount and Garrison Keillor, allows us, once again, to celebrate the literary genius of Mark Twain.

A young boy suffers amnesia from a trauma he suffered in what feels like must have been another life. He's adopted into a wealthy family - but what will happen when he learns the truth about his past?

La pratique de la parentalité positive se heurte rapidement à des limites : celles des parents, avec la culpabilité qui accompagne le fait de ne pas y arriver. Cet ouvrage décrypte les idées reçues qui circulent sur les réseaux sociaux et la pression qui peut s'exercer sur les jeunes parents aujourd'hui. Avec l'avènement des neurosciences et les récents progrès en neuropsychologie, le changement dans les méthodes éducatives a été particulièrement fulgurant.

The relationship that matters most to your daughter isn't the one with her mother - it's the one with you, Dad. Her self-esteem, choices, behavior, character, and even her ideas about or choice of a marriage partner are all directly tied to you, as the most important representative to her of the male species.

Do you easily get angry with your child? Do little things annoy you easily? Have you experienced an outburst in public? Are you tired of yelling inside the house to have your children obey? Discover the yell-free and stress-free approach to parenting!

In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that our children, if free to pursue their own interests through play, will not only learn all they need to know but will do so with energy and passion. Children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.