The Responsible Parent

Drawing on research investigating the parenting lives and mediation appointments of twenty-four sets of parents, "The Responsible Parent" focuses on two aspects of the relationship between mediation and parental responsibility. First, it analyses the process of mediation in terms of the responsibility exercised by parents and mediators. Second, it deconstructs the concept of parental responsibility which underpins mediation and is revealed as vital to the process itself. The book addresses current issues of power and control in mediation, particularly in relation to gender differences, and offers new insights regarding the influence of pre-separation parenting, the status of caretaking and the increasingly important issue of "advice-giving" in relation to separation and divorce.