angiEmedia

(Originally published January 15, 2009. Updated August 27, 2010.)

So you’re getting a divorce, or have already gotten one. Have any kids in the picture? You can bet they are confused about what you and your ex-spouse (or soon-to-be-ex-spouse) have done by breaking up the family. Kids need to understand what is going on from such a big family change as a divorce, and it’s not a simple thing for them. Why? Well, for starters:

• Children often blame themselves for the divorce.

• They need to know that divorce is an adult problem, not one caused by children.

• Child self-blame for divorce creates psychological problems, some of which can be long-term and severe.

• Children need to know that it’s OK to love both parents.

• They are often put in the middle and made to “pick sides” by one or both parents and don’t like this at all.

• They need to know that parents who try to make them “pick sides” and bad-mouth the other parent are doing the wrong thing so they won’t participate and may possibly help their misguided parent(s) control themselves.

Even in an amicable divorce involving children, there are going to be questions and worries. All of the books discussed in this posting can help with those, especially for the intended audience which is generally late toddler-hood to early grade school, about ages 2 to 9.

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We’ve been writing a lot about San Diego’s tyrants DA Bonnie Dumanis, Judge Lorna Alksne, and many others who make a mockery of the US Constitution and civil rights. But just in case you mistakenly thought San Diego has a monopoly on government corruption and abuse, here’s a book that goes to show no matter where you live in the United States, you are only a stone’s throw away from the putrid stench of corrupt law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts. Author J.B. Simms, a private investigator with 25 years experience who has worked with Diane Sawyer and other big name journalists, uncovered solid evidence of this while conducting an investigation of a hit-and-run homicide that his client said he didn’t commit. His book Don’t Get Arrested in South Carolina details his investigation that revealed corruption and crime from the Richland County Sheriff’s Department on up to the South Carolina Supreme Court. This book is a Bronze Prize Winner of the 2009 Independent Publishers book award in the True Crime category.
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We sometimes get emails from our readers asking about the mix of information on our web site. Some readers wonder why we write about topics that seemingly have nothing to do with each other. Many of our readers are interested in the family law abuse and judicial corruption stories, others appreciate the coverage of health topics, and yet others find the stories about police abuse tactics match their own experiences. But what do they all have in common? The answer is they are all tied together by the involvement of government in abusing its duties to the public to uphold the law, avoiding conflicts of interest and bias, and staying away from corruption. In this article, I’ll be comparing examples of what I’ve learned about the abusive conduct of the FDA with the abusive conduct of family law courts. They are both excellent examples of how the United States has strayed a long distance down a very dark road that leads to becoming an abusive totalitarian state that views its citizens as slaves to be controlled for its own profit and power.

Violating Civil and Human Rights For Job Security, Power, and Profit

We prominently feature stories of abuse, corruption, and persecution by out of control government intent on building job security and power by crushing opponents and inventing fictional “crimes” and “crises” to “justify” their abuses and budgets. They commonly do all of this and more not only in violation of the law but also against any reasonable norm for moral and ethical behaviors for governments and government employees. While our readers may be familiar with the pattern of government abuse and corruption in their own experiences or those of family and friends who have been badly harmed by it, they may not be familiar with similar trangressions in other areas.
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I’ve previously written a review and comparison of six divorce books for children. One of my favorites is the book Was It the Chocolate Pudding?: A Story For Little Kids About Divorce written by author Sandra Levins.
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The Five Love Languages of Children truly is a great and important book for every parent to read. It explains the five different approaches of providing love to a child and teaches parents to recognize and speak their child’s love language. By speaking the right love language, Moms and Dads can avoid many parenting issues and pitfalls by effectively connecting with their children and redirect their efforts to building family relationships that are filled with mutual and genuine respect, affection and commitment. Parents who read the book will also learn much about themselves, understand what their own love language is, and thereby improve relationships with their spouse or partner and even their own parents.

Apart from the basic physical needs of food, shelter and clothing, every child needs unconditional love; love that accepts and affirms a child for simply being who they are, not for what they do. Without unconditional love, a child will wither emotionally and can become stunted for life by feelings of inadequacy, fear, anger and resentment.
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Until you have personal experience of divorce and child custody litigation, it would be difficult to understand or appreciate what Alec Baldwin (with Mark Tabb) writes about in his book A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce.

Many, I think, would consider his book as being some far-fetched Hollywood gossip and a way to gain more celebrity status, or even a way to defend his case and blame it on the ex. I suppose it’s hard not to be influenced by the roles actors play in movies and what you read in trashy magazines and newspapers. To me, Alec Baldwin certainly doesn’t have the “nice guy” reputation — if anything, it’s more like the “womanizer”. Then again, Kim Basinger is no angel, either.
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(Click here for more coverage on parental alienation.)

Psychologists Dr. Amy J. L. Baker and Dr. Katherine Andre have written a new book entitled “I Don’t Want to Choose: How Middle School Kids Can Avoid Choosing One Parent Over the Other”. This work is targeted for an audience of middle school children who want to keep both parents involved in their lives. It teaches children to use their critical thinking skills to avoid being duped or pressured into picking one parent over another.

What is Parental Alienation?

Parental alienation involves the systematic and frequently repeated denigration of one parent by the other and blocking of access to the parent who is the target of denigration. This is not just a simple and occasional comment such as “mommy can be so annoying sometimes” or “it is frustrating that daddy doesn’t keep his schedule”. While those comments are inappropriate in front of children as they tend to make children anxious and feel like they might have to take sides, infrequent comments like these probably do not constitute parental alienation.
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(Click here for more coverage of CPSIA.)

With the February 10, 2009, start of enforcement of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 just 3 days away, we are relieved to see that the Consumer Product Safety Commissions has issued a press release outlining exceptions for children’s books printed using ordinary processes from 1985 onwards and for children’s clothing manufactured using natural fibers.

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(Click here for more coverage of CPSIA.)

The February 10, 2009, start of enforcement of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is just two weeks away, yet the US federal government is still irresponsibly failing to correct the interpretations of the law to avoid shutting down access children’s books in libraries and even school text books.

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(Click here for more coverage of CPSIA.)

The February 10, 2009, start of enforcement of the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 continues to draw closer as the US federal government still has its head stuck in the sand regarding the mess the law is about to make.

On January 22, 2009, the book publishing industry met with the Consumer Products Safety Commission to give them evidence of 150 test results from finished children’s books to show that lead is not a reasonable concern for such items. But there is still no indication of what CPSC will do about the matter, if anything.

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