We have blogged in the past about parental alienation and “Parental Alienation Syndrome.” Currently, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is a hot topic among the family law and psychiatric communities. The American Psychiatric Association is in the process of updating its formal list of medical disorders and, therefore, has to decide whether to include PAS in its new list of confirmed mental health disorders.
According to Wikipedia, “Parental Alienation Syndrome (abbreviated as PAS) is a term coined by Richard A. Gardner in the early 1980s to refer to what he describes as a disorder in which a child, on an ongoing basis, belittles and insults one parent without justification, due to a combination of factors, including indoctrination by the other parent (almost exclusively as part of a child custody dispute) and the child’s own attempts to denigrate the target parent”.
I suspect virtually all Family Law attorneys will tell you that, unfortunately, purposeful parental alienation is all too common in hotly contested custody actions. So, while there appears to be little debate on its existence, there is a bitter debate as to whether it represents a mental illness. On top of that, there is concern that certain opposition to visiting with … Read More... “Should Parental Alienation be Classified as a Mental Disorder?”
Question Presented: Is it likely that one spouse would be granted an award of spousal support in a divorce for having been infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) by the other spouse?
Consistently, one of my favorite blogs is Michael Mastracci’s Divorce Without Dishonor Blog. Mike is an excellent attorney from Baltimore, Maryland. His own difficult and acrimonious divorce and child custody battle led to his personal interest in collaborative family law. Both attorneys and clients should include his blog on their frequent read list. Mike regularly espouses ethical, moral and philosophical standards that we should aspire to meet. I have personally and professionally been a proponent of child welfare issues for over 30 years. So, when I read his recent post about 
Psychotherapist and Guest Contributor Donna F. Ferber sent me an email a month or so ago encouraging me to read Suzi Parker’s article about famous couples who chose, rather than going through a divorce, to simply live separate lives. Click 
Over the past month or so, I have come across some interesting items related to post-divorce parties, celebrations and gifts. In my opinion, some of them are respectable, others are pretty far out there, and a few are bizarre or just sort of crass. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Nonetheless, I will share some with our readers.
The lazy, hazy days of summer will soon be gone, only to be replaced with the frenetic days of a new school year. Despite the grumblings from your children about returning to school, most children are actually ready to resume the routine that school brings. The beginning of the school year is exciting. Your child will be happy to see friends and to meet their teachers, but it can also be a time of uncertainty and worry. They might be concerned about how they will do this year in school, if their friends are in their classes, or if they will like their teachers. It can be especially difficult for those students attending a brand new school, or those who are transitioning from elementary to middle school, or middle to high school.
One of my all time favorite family law blogs is Updates in Michigan Family Law written by Attorney Jeanne M. Hannah. I read her posts every week even though thinking about Michigan gives me a twinge of pain as a “Buckeye”. Nonetheless, her posts are always informative and excellent! She recently posted on a topic that I felt would be of interest to our readers, especially since our law office is only a few miles from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. With Jeanne’s kind permission, I have republished her article below.