SERVICES

Parenting Resources

Centered on your child. Focused on your family.

Tools to build stronger relationships between
parents and children, even through conflict.

Children’s Law Center provides tools and resources to help parents and caregivers overcome challenges, build healthy relationships, and create lasting stability for their children. These supports are designed to guide families through difficult times and restore a safe, loving child-focused environment. 

Support for Every Step of Your Parenting Journey

Supporting Your Relationship with Your Child
Strengthening the Parenting Partnership
Navigating Custody and Conflict
Additional Resources for Your Parenting Journey

Supporting Your Relationship
with Your Child

Healthy relationships between children and parents are
the foundation of a strong family. Whether you’re repairing
a fractured bond or navigating the challenges of step-
parenting, the right guidance and support can help build
trust, understanding, and connection. These resources offer
practical tools to strengthen your relationships and promote
your children’s well-being.

Fractured Relationships

Fractured relationships occur when the connection between parents and children is disrupted. These challenges can arise from experiences such as trauma, separation, mental health struggles, or substance use. Understanding the sources of these disruptions is the first step and practical strategies and trusted resources can help families begin to heal, rebuild trust, and strengthen their bond.

Useful Strategies

The ABCD Communication Method

The ABCD Communication Method helps you connect and communicate with
your child. There are four elements that you can focus on:

Affect: the right tone of voice to evoke safety

Body Language: open, comforting gestures

The SHARE approach

The SHARE approach will help you in promoting your child’s Safety, taking
time to avoid Hurrying, fostering Attachment in brief, effective ways,
restoring Regulation that may have been disrupted, and encouraging
Efficacy for both parent and child.

The 3 Rs

Cultural Cues: respecting context

Delivery: clear, reassuring words

The 3 Rs can be used to support your child’s safety and emotional well-being.
Reassurance that they are safe, Routines that are consistent yet flexible,
and Regulation to help them manage stress and emotions.

Learn How to Forgive for Better Well-Being

Additional Resources for Fractured Relationship Support

Same link as first one?

Healing Heart, Building Peace; a Guided Curriculum for Children Ages 14-18.

Missing Link

Healing Heart, Building Peace; a Guided Curriculum for Children Ages 17-18.

Step-Parenting

If you live in a family with step-children or are a step-parent, you are not alone. Millions of children in the U.S. are part of step-families, and nearly 40% of new marriages involve at least one partner with children from a previous relationship.
The introduction of a new parent can create tension as children navigate loyalty dynamics and adjust to step-siblings. Step-parenting can be especially
challenging in families already affected by divorce or the loss of a parent.

Resource content?

Additional Resources for Step-Parenting

The Stepfamily Handbook

Misssing link

Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn’t

Strengthening the
Parenting Partnership

Navigating a separation or divorce with children is
challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to develop
new ways to communicate, cope, and parent. Effective
coparenting, tailored to each family’s needs, supports
children’s stability, emotional growth, and safety. While
styles and approaches may vary, the goal is to prioritize
the children’s best interests and maintain healthy
relationships with both parents.

Cooperative or Collaborative Coparenting

Cooperative coparenting is a team approach where separated or divorced parents work together to support their child’s well-being. It relies on clear communication, mutual respect, and shared decision-making, prioritizing the child’s best interests. This approach helps minimize conflict and provides children with stability and consistency during family transitions.

Useful Strategies

  • Develop a coparenting plan to guide decisions and handle disputes.

  • Maintain personal support to manage stress, including therapy if helpful.

  • Hold regular check-ins (e.g., monthly) to discuss schedules, schoolwork,
    and child needs.

  • Respect boundaries and privacy in each home.

  • Avoid revisiting past conflicts.

  • Use appropriate communication channels—face-to-face, email,
    or phone—to minimize conflict.

Additional Resources for Collaborative Parenting

Cooperative Parenting Institute
National Cooperative Parenting Center
North Carolina Collaborative Attorney Network
Therapeutic Approaches to Strengthening Co-Parenting

Transactional Coparenting

Transactional coparenting takes a more business-like approach, focusing
on clear boundaries, structured interactions, and fulfilling parenting responsibilities. While it prioritizes efficiency over emotional connection, fostering support, cooperation, and positive family functioning can help parents manage co-parenting duties effectively and maintain stability
while promoting their child’s emotional and social development.

Useful Strategies

  • Apps and communication tools such as AI may be helpful for scheduling
    and relaying information between parents.

  • Any Others??

Additional Resources for Transactional Coparenting

Transactional Coparenting: A Practical Path Forward
Any other?

Parallel Coparenting

Parallel coparenting allows parents to remain involved in their children’s lives while minimizing direct interaction with each other and operating independently in their respective homes. Each parent manages their own rules, routines, and decisions
within their home, focusing on the child’s well-being. By providing stability, structure, and shielding children from conflict, this approach supports emotional and social development even in high-conflict situations.

Useful Strategies

  • Create a clear parenting plan outlining schedules, communication methods,
    and each parent’s responsibilities.

  • Allow each parent to make day-to-day decisions during their parenting time.

  • Attend school events or other functions separately if needed to reduce conflict
    or stress on the child.

  • Use co-parenting apps or tools to exchange information efficiently.

  • Keep communication business-like and focused on the child.

  • Avoid trying to influence or control what happens in the other parent’s home.

Additional Resources for Parallel Parenting

How Parallel Parenting Works
Choosing the Right Path: Co-Parenting vs. Parallel Parenting
Parenting Coordinators
A Guide to Parallel Parenting: 10 Tips to Support Your Child

Navigating Custody and Conflict

Family conflict and domestic disputes can disrupt children’s sense of safety and well-being. If your child is experiencing stress from these situations, you are not alone—many families face similar challenges .However exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have lasting effects on emotional, physical, and academic development. Children who experience multiple ACEs
are at higher risk for health problems, behavior challenges, and difficulties in school.

Useful Strategies

  • Work with a Parenting Coordinator (PC): A PC is a neutral professional who helps high-conflict parents implement parenting plans, mediate disputes, facilitate communication, and ensure compliance with court orders, including parallel parenting arrangements. Their authority and
    role are defined by the court.

  • Create a Parallel Parenting Plan: Parallel parenting plans reduce direct interaction between high-conflict parents by separating parental duties.
    A Guardian ad Litem (GAL) may provide neutral input to the judge, helping design a plan that promotes stability, clarity, and the child’s well-being.


Families can take steps to heal and support
their children by accessing guidance, building stability, and implementing practical strategies that can help reduce the impact of conflict.

If your family is navigating a CH 50B Civil Domestic Violence cases (DVPO) and CH 50 High Conflict Custody case, Children’s Law Center’s Custody Advocacy Program (CAP) provides legal advocacy that prioritizes your child’s safety, stability, and well-being. Click here to get immediate support from the CAP team.

Additional Resources for Navigating Custody and Conflict

Child Custody and Visitation Mediation Program
Professional Third Parties: Parenting Co-Ordinator and GAL’s (MISSING LINK)

For families seeking additional guidance, a variety of resources are available to help
navigate parenting challenges, strengthen relationships, and access professional support.

Additional Resources for Your Parenting Journey

Request Additional Support

Please email CAP@ChildLawNC.org, call 336-831-1909, or fill out the form below.