Shared Parenting Information Group (SPIG) UK
- promoting responsible shared parenting after separation and divorce -
Dad's Place: a new guide for fathers after divorce (book review)
Jill Burrett (1996)
Ward Lock; ISBN 0 7063 7641 2 £ 10.99 pbk.
Jill Burrett is a counsellor , psychologist and the author of the widely acclaimed To and Fro Children; a guide to successful parenting after divorce, Thorsons, 1993.
Dads Place covers much of the same ground as the earlier book but is an attempt to gear the information to a specifically male audience of fathers. As such it is one of the first self help books in the field to specifically deal with the problems and pitfalls that men experience in non residential parenting. Whilst sometimes Burrett's style is annoyingly 'touchy feely' there is a wealth of practical information here. She deals with relationships and emotions and generally she avoids the trap of patronising her audience.
She talks the language of shared parenting, in particular she stresses the importance of parenting plans, something that SPIG have been plugging away at for ages. There is good stuff here too about personal mastery, knowing yourself and a good discussion of maleness and men and parenting. She includes some excellent material on children and their needs, how to relate to children, she is particularly good on fielding divorce questions from children. Also included is a very helpful section on new partners and stepfamilies.
Many fathers apart from their children will have learned a lot of these lessons the hard way. For the newly separated this book is an extremely valuable self help guide, well worth buying, but there's lots here for the old stagers as well.
Recommended.
Arthur Baker
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