Children in the Middle Works

"The Children in the Middle Program had a great atmosphere of sharing and ideas. The facilitator was excellent and came with a lot of experience and new ideas. I wish I had done it sooner."

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Find out when the next Children in the Middle will be offered at a local Family Center in McKean County.

The Incredible Years

Why Children in the Middle?

More than 1.5 million children are affected by divorce every year.  The most "damaging aspect of divorce for children is their parent’s conflict" 1, which parents are oftentimes unaware of.

Children in the Middle, a program offered to divorced parents in McKean County, seeks to help parents both see how divorce is affecting their child and give them tips and tools to avoid the negative affects. This is done by helping parents learn how to:

Program Details

One particularly important topic the program addresses is called loyalty conflicts. Essentially this is when parents ask their children, or even manipulate them, into thinking they have to side with one parent over the other. Most of the time, parents do not realize they are putting their children in this position. Children in the Middle helps parents see this issue, realize what it does to their children and then teaches them how to prevent it.

The program consists of a one day, four-hour session. The class facilitator uses a video showing inappropriate and appropriate ways of dealing with conflict. Also included in the class are exercises from a workbook as well as the chance to role-play, letting parents practice the tools presented.

1 The Center For Divorce Education, “Children in the Middle: Divorce Education for Parents’: available from http://www.divorce-education.com/CIM.pdf; Internet; accessed July 1 2008.

The McKean County Family Centers is a program of The Guidance Center.