Parent Ed
Forty percent of kids in the United States will experience the divorce of their parents. But in the course of coming undone, many couples are so focused on their own crises they forget about the kids or unwittingly cause them pain.
Enter a whole new form of parent education. Progressive judges, courts, and localities are moving toward mandatory instruction of parents in the emotional impact of divorce on kids. The goal is simple--to keep beth adults focused on the best interests of the kids.
Take, for example, Columbus, Ohio, in Franklin County. It is now court policy to require all parents filing for divorce or separation to attend a class within 45 days--or else no approval. Provided in the Domestic Relations Court House,the two-and-a-half-hour class starts with a film in which actual kids talk heart-wrenchingly about their parents' split. Then there's instruction in such basics as expectable reactions, what kids need (free contact with both parents, new rules), what they don't (being cast as go-betweens or spies), and, especially, how to manage their own conflict.
