When the Bond of Family is broken

Posted on Aug 3, 2010 in Family, Relationships

How do people recover from a broken relationship (or I should say, “a break in relationship”)? This means basically that someone in the relationship has decided to walk away, totally and completely. When the ties that bind us together as a family are shredded and on the ground, what is the one left holding the pieces to do? In my practice, I’ve worked with grandparents who are estranged from their grown children and their...

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Parents: Your Marriage Should Be Your Most Important Relationship

Posted on Jul 17, 2010 in Children, Family, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships

I am sitting here with a scowl on my face fighting with my 6-year-old because she is being annoying. She is hungry, she has already had dinner and, yes, two bowls of ice cream. I have offered her cheese, an apple and ven a fruit roll-up, which in some homes is considered dessert! She shoots me her perfecteed stink eye and is clearly not cooperating. I am tired. My husband is really tired and already asleep on the sofa with the Golf...

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Mayor Mom Kills Self and College-Bound Daughter … WHY?

Posted on Jul 15, 2010 in Celebrities in the News, Death, Family, Parenting, Tragedies

The mayor of an affluent Dallas suburb shot and killed her 19-year-old daughter and then turned the gun on herself. The two were found Tuesday evening when the usually prompt mayor failed to show up at a meeting. A letter greeted the police on the front door, warning them of the unpleasant scene they would be encountering when they walked inside the home. Mayor Jayne Peters had worked for the city in some capacity since 1998. Her daughter,...

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Reality TV, Kids, and Dangerous Endeavors

Posted on Jun 18, 2010 in Celebrities in the News, Children, Family, Parenting, Television

The Sunderland family has found themselves in a firestorm — or, more accurately, a big storm in the Indian Ocean that could have taken the life of their daughter, Abby. They have been criticized by many people for allowing and encouraging their 16-year-old daughter to try to break the record for being the youngest person to sail around the world. I believe that enabling a minor to voyage alone for months in hostile seas (especially...

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Parental Alienation IS a Crime!

Posted on Jun 16, 2010 in Children, Family, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships

A Nassau County Supreme Court justice has sentenced a mother to six weekends in jail for civil contempt. Per the judge, the guilty mom — Lauren Lippe — engaged in a pattern of “alienating” behavior wherein she made false allegations of sexual abuse against her children’s father, Ted Rubin — allegations that were calculated to interfere with her ex-husband’s scheduled time and relationship with their...

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Heidi Klum and Seal Want to Fix Your Marriage

Posted on Jun 7, 2010 in Celebrities in the News, Family, Marriage, Relationships

It has been announced that Heidi Klum and her husband, Seal, are working on a new Lifetime show about love and marriage, called “Love’s Divine.” As a relationship expert who works with distressed couples who are near divorce, I think this is a great idea. We hear so much in the news about celebrity marriages falling apart. From Tiger to Tipper, we hear about couples who have fallen out of love — or fallen into the arms...

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