Marriage Kids

Upgrading from "married" to "married with children" can be stressful. Think about it: Who loves to find him or herself in a minivan loaded with noisy kids? Or, as much as you love your children and work hard to nurture them for the future, the challenges that come with parenthood can make the "for better or for worse" promise a hard one to honor.

One of the things that can cause problems in a family and marriage is when parents are out of alignment with each other...which can be a cause of inconsistency, heated discussions, and confusion that can ultimately end up hurting your kids. So, what’s the solution to this? Being good parents together. Being in perfect alignment with each other when it comes to your most important job on this planet: parenting your kids. This book will show you exactly how to do that.

All of Gemma's dreams come true when she's asked to step into the role of Puddleducks Playgroup leader. She knows the place better than anyone and is determined to prove she's the right person for the job. Nothing is going to spoil this opportunity for her... Until she meets Joe Balls, the newly appointed head of reception at the neighbouring infant school. An ex-banker more comfortable with numbers than nursery rhymes, Joe has this annoying habit of interfering with Gemma and her plans for the playgroup.

Bea and her mom have always been a two-person team. But now her mom is marrying Wendell, and their team is growing by three boys, two dogs, and a cat. Finding her place in her new blended family may be tough, but when Bea finds out her school might not get the all-girls soccer team they'd been promised, she learns that the bigger the team, the stronger the fight—and that for the girls to get what they deserve, they're going to need a squad behind them.

Would-be amusement park aficionado Dalia only has two items on her summer bucket list: (1) finally ride a roller coaster and (2) figure out how to make a new best friend. But when her dad suddenly announces that he's engaged, Dalia's schemes come to a screeching halt. With Dalia's future stepsister Alexa heading back to college soon, the grown-ups want the girls to spend the last weeks of summer bonding--meaning Alexa has to cancel the amusement park road trip she's been planning for months.

Middle school is always hard, but when you’re known as the Roadkill Kid, well, it’s even harder. Jack’s mom collects roadkill—it’s her job, and she’s very good at it. Ever since Jack’s mom and dad got divorced, Jack has stepped into the role of Mom’s co-scientist. One day while tending to the roadkill garden, Jack believes he spots a cougar in the wilderness beyond his backyard. A cougar in Tennessee? They’re supposed to be extinct. So, when Jack has to choose an animal to research for his Earth Science class, he picks cougar.

Happily Married With Kids shows what you can do to make your marriage better and grow closer to your spouse after the kids arrive. This book is engaging, fun, and practical, and filled with easy-to-follow tips. Are you having less sex, less fun, and more arguments than you did before kids? The arrival of a newborn puts a tremendous strain on even the best marriages. Happily Married With Kids has steps you can take to work toward a warm, loving relationship with your spouse that will last a lifetime.

For Kirsten McKenna, the world is crumbling. Her parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has come under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna. Only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side. Meanwhile, for Walker Jones, the goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin.

Since as far back as Ben can remember, it’s been him, his devoted dad, and Sunshine - Ben’s little dog, who rarely leaves Ben’s side. It was Mom who did the leaving, and Ben’s about to spend a whole week with his suddenly present mother in the wilds of northern Minnesota. On the remote island she calls home, Ben will learn to camp, canoe, weather the elements, and weigh a burning question: When will she come back to where she belongs?

After the death of his brother and the sudden end of his marriage, and after his ex-wife moved to another state leaving him alone with their two young children, Dan Glick embarked on single fatherhood in an unusual way: he took his kids on a journey around the world. The idea was to go see some of the world's rare life forms before they disappeared from the planet, and to do it before the kids themselves would grow up and chart their own paths.

No Kids Required is the story of 20 women who are choosing to be childfree. It showcases the blessings and burdens that come with their decision, how they fill their free time, and the countless reasons why these women decided that kids are not required. It’s an honest and insightful story about respecting one another’s choices and living life on your terms.

Striking the right balance between career and motherhood is one of the most stressful, heart-wrenching tasks facing women today. In Torn, 46 women examine the conflict between the need to nurture and the need to work, and reveal creative solutions for having the best of both worlds. The stories in the collection offer hope and inspiration, but they also reveal the messy realities of modern motherhood and life's inevitable crises, both small and large.

"When my parents split up, they didn't know what to do with me....My family always lived at Mulberry Cottage. Mum, Dad, me, and Radish, my Sylvanian rabbit. But now Mum lives with Bill the Baboon and his three kids. Dad lives with Carrie and her twins. And where do I live? I live out of a suitcase. Mum wanted me to go and live with her. My dad wanted me to go and live with him. I wanted to stay at our old place, all three of us together, but that wasn't allowed."

Very few families are perfect. But looking from the outside in, through conversations in the grocery store or clicking through social media, often times it seems we are the only ones struggling with raising our kids or aligning with our spouses on parenting. The reality is that so many families struggle. Vicki Hoefle, three-time author, parenting coach, and sought-after speaker, offers a fresh, practical roadmap for achievable family - and marital - harmony and happiness.

Developed by experts in the fields of early childhood and activism against injustice, this topic-driven board book offers clear, concrete language that young children can grasp and adults can leverage for further discussion.