Gail M. Ragen

Glass Houses: Raising Kids with My Ex Gail M. Ragen 1st edition

Glass Houses: Raising Kids With My Ex is a deeply endearing, heartfelt memoir about one divorced couple?s commitment to raise their children positively and cooperatively after divorce. When Gail Ragen was a child, her parents built a beautiful glass house overlooking Seattle and Lake Washington. But, when she was ten, her parents divorced, shattering the glass house and Gail?s family along with it. Decades later, when her own marriage was unraveling, Gail swore that her three young children would not suffer as she had. When Gail and her husband, Peter, decided to divorce, they couldn?t agree on much. But they both wanted to protect their children from conflict. Then, on the eve of separation, disaster ? a mass shooting in Peter?s office?took the lives of friends and rocked Gail and Peter to their cores. Even surviving tragedy could not save their marriage, but Gail and Peter glimpsed the fragility of life. They focused on what was most important ? their children. Gail and Peter agreed that, no matter what, they would put their children?s best interests over their own. Through storytelling and funny anecdotes, in Glass Houses: Raising Kids With My Ex, Gail chronicles how she and Peter decided to give up the blame game, move on and be kind to their kids and each other. Together, over fifteen years as divorced parents, they built a new relationship and ultimately found happiness in remarriage to others. Along the way, Gail and Peter moved from a broken marriage to a friendly parenting partnership. Glass Houses includes excerpts by Gail?s ex-husband, Peter, and by all three children who share their parents? (and step-parents?) pride in their extended, loving family.