The United Front

A child will find the seam.Wherever two parents leave even a little daylight-one a touch firmer, one a touch softer, a disagreement they thought they hid-a child will find it. Not because he is wicked. Because he is a child, and that is what children do.The United Front is not a book about becoming the same parent. It is a book about becoming one government while remaining two people. Paul and Diane Shepherd write in two voices because a book about oneness should not pretend to speak with one mouth. They show how good marriages quietly become two households: the counterweight parent, the public overrule, the specialist split, the martyr, the alliance that forms across a generation.Then they show how to close it.You will learn how to: - Disagree completely behind a closed door and walk out as one- Back the other parent in front of the children-even when you think they are wrong- Stop triangulation with one sentence: "What did your mother say?"- Hand off mornings, evenings, texts, weekends, and vacations without opening a new gap- Extend the front to grandparents, coaches, ex-spouses, and blended homes- Tend the marriage first, because the marriage is the ground the children stand on- Write a household covenant the two of you can actually keepThis is not a book about how to agree. You will not always agree. It is about how to stop being divided. Read it together. The conversations it starts are the work.Includes a chapter-by-chapter guide for couples and a household covenant you can adapt and sign.