National Parents Organization wishes all fathers, everywhere, a happy Father’s Day. And we extend our sympathy to those fathers for whom this is a sad day because they have been wrongly excluded from their children’s lives.

Last year I wrote about the history of Father’s Day in the United States. It’s a longer and more interesting history than I’d realized before I started reading up on it. This year, I wanted to say a few words about Father’s Day around the world.

Well, not on your sleeve exactly. But you can wear your support for NPO and shared parenting on your t-shirt, or tank top, or your hoodie. You can display it on a coffee mug, a tote, or a pin.

NPO is proud to announce the opening of its merchandise store on TeePublic featuring these and many other items displaying the NPO logo or declaration of support for shared parenting. Of course you can purchase items that say ‘I Support Shared Parenting’. But you can also purchase merchandise with declarations of support for shared parenting that identify your relation to it: ‘Moms Support Shared Parenting’, ‘Dads Support Shared Parenting’, ‘Grandparents Support Shared Parenting’, and so forth.

It can be hard for those who aren’t scientists to separate good scientific research from bad research or even from pseudoscientific writing. This is true in the area of research on parental alienation as much as, and maybe more than, in other areas.

That is unfortunate because severe alienating behaviors are child abuse, a form of coercive control that is extremely damaging to children and to the targeted parent. This makes it all the more important to separate sound from shoddy research.

April 22, 2021

National Parents Organization is pleased to announce the launch of Shared Parenting News.

For many years, NPO has sponsored the NPO Blog, a platform for the expression of opinions on matters of interest to our readers. We are moving to the new platform, Shared Parenting News, which will focus on communicating important news and keeping readers apprised of developments related to NPO’s mission to “improve the lives of children & strengthen society by protecting every child's right to the love & care of both parents after separation or divorce.”

February 17, 2021 by Don Hubin, Ph.D., Chair, National Board of Directors

Using children as a weapon in divorce battles is horrible. Unfortunately, it’s more common than many people think. Many divorces and separations are accompanied by some stray negative comments from one parent about the other either overheard by the children or directed to them. In some cases, though, one parent engages in a systematic campaign of denigration against the other parent—a campaign aimed at alienating the children from the targeted parent.

February 4, 2021 by Don Hubin, Ph.D., Chair, National Board of Directors

It’s not unusual. Once again, the public is way ahead of our legislators, who are too often held back by the demands of special interests to which they are beholden.

Regular readers of the NPO Blog know that there is a strong scientific consensus that substantially equal shared parenting is, in the vast majority of cases, in children’s best interest. And, regular readers will recall, too, that NPO has done polling in a number of states that shows, beyond doubt, that the public overwhelmingly favors a legal presumption in favor of shared parenting.

December 21, 2020 by Don Hubin, Ph.D., Chair, National Board of Directors

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending the International Council on Shared Parenting’s 5th international conference, which was co-sponsored by National Parents Organization. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a virtual conference. Though there are drawbacks to this format, there are also advantages. It made it possible to bring together scholars and audience members from around the world to address the focus of the conference: shared parenting and family violence. It was truly an international conference: drawing more than a thousand registrants from 56 different countries.

Over the course of several forthcoming blog articles, I want to share with you some of the important insights that emerged in the conference presentations. The first comes from Dr. William Bernet, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Since 2012, Americans have been taking part in a new post-Thanksgiving Day tradition that shows our generous spirit: Giving Tuesday. The uniquely American holiday, Thanksgiving, traditionally brings extended families together to give thanks for their blessings. (Of course, this can be a lonely day for those parents who cannot be with their children.) Merchants created Black Friday, which originally was just the day after Thanksgiving but now seems to begin weeks, if not months, earlier. The idea behind Giving Tuesday was to encourage people to step back from the commercialization of the season and show their gratitude for their blessings by giving to help others.