What Children Learn From Their Parents' Marriage : It May Be Your Marriage, but It's Your Child's Blueprint for Intimacy

How are your children learning about intimacy? What are they seeing when they watch you interacting with your spouse? In a ground breaking approach to family dynamics, What Children Learn from Their Parents' Marriage shows how a child's perception of the marriage his or her parents have created is the key to his or her psychological development and ultimate well-being. Talking to both intact families and divorcing couples with children, marriage and family therapist Judith P. Sigel identifies seven essential elements of marriage that determine the emotional health of a child. By combining her own work with the most current research, Dr. Siegal presents an eye-opening and highly readable book — one that offers illuminating insight for parents everywhere who wish to build the secure foundation their children need for an emotionally healthy future. Siegel asserts that the key to a child's healthy development is not simply the relationship he has with each parent but the perception he has of the relationship between his parents. Siegel identifies the key elements of marriage that provide critical information to children. They include: the degree to which the marriage is a priority; the level of mutual support, respect, and trust between husband and wife; how marital differences are negotiated and conflict resolved; and how friendship and affection are communicated THERE IS AN OLD SAYING that goes "Children do as they see, not as they are told" I'm sure you have heard this before: If you want your child to read more, the best way to accomplish this is to read more yourself.