Special to Side By Side Services from Shari Macneall After enjoying a long and luxurious respite from early bedtimes and set routines, the mere thought of back to school can be anxiety provoking for everyone, especially children. The return to school not only means the end of summer but the start of a new…
Shari Macneall Blended families are more common now than ever before as many marriages include children from previous relationships. There are wonderful aspects to building your life together as a family, but not without some challenges. Congratulations! Now that you’ve met the person you want to share your life with, you need to come up…
This will be my second Christmas without my raison d’être, my angels, my loves. I think it’s fair to say, from having to pull out the Kleenex already, that I’m not expecting this holiday season to be any better than last. If anything, I wonder if it could be worse. Before last year, I had…
I know the statement may not seem promising, but it is so true. I have been fighting to stay in my son’s life ever since he was born. His mother kept trying to take me to court and trying to stop my visitation rights. I went through supervised access visits, to reintegration therapy, back to…
At Thanksgiving, we all want to spend special time with family. The holiday is tailored for just these, moments with our most precious relationships and special individuals. Kids, parents, grandparents, extended family and friends are the ones we want close, because they make us who we are. Throw in a few family birthdays, Christmas, annual holidays,…
Meeting my father was my lifelong dream. All my life I wanted to know who he was. Do I look like him? Do I have siblings? I finally met him when I was 37 years old. I grew up in a household of women with my mom her two sisters and my two cousins. There…
If you are like many parents and in a situation where your time with your children is supervised, you are most likely angry, hurt and frustrated, to name a few. For your child, supervised access comes with fears and anxieties. Supervised access is an opportunity to be with your child to learn and grow When…
When the decision to separate is made and there are children involved, it is of vital importance they are told by both parents. In our need to protect our children from this life changing decision and its impact we sometimes miss their needs. A 17 year shares her experience with some common theme from parental…
So the story goes something like this… three days before my teenage son Myles’ (not his real name) progress report was due, he text me to say “Mom, I need a tutor for math.” In a normal situation a parent would commend their teenage child for taking this initiative. However, this is not a normal…
The idea of separation was terrifying for me. I was afraid of the effects on my children. All that my children had ever known was a happy home with mom and dad that loved them, and now we were breaking that up. They were too young to understand why and I was afraid they would…