Dear Dr Meg,

My daughter and son in law will be divorced in a couple of weeks. My daughter will have sole custody with supervised visits.  The supervised visits will be with my husband and I. My son in law is an alcoholic, has anxiety issues, and is bipolar with sudden rages where he destroys things.  Since my granddaughter was born 2 1/2 years ago, his symptoms and diseases have become out of control and he states openly he resents her for being born and that she has ruined his life.  He has never established a relationship with her and when he was around her he wanted to hit her, not spank, just hit her for his own satisfaction.  Anyway that’s the short version.  My question is do you have a book on raising children from a broken family.  We want to do the very best we can to raise a happy healthy girl!! Statistics are gloomy. Please help.

Thank you,

Beverly

Dear Beverly,

Your granddaughter is lucky to have you and your husband in her life. Yes, statistics are gloomy but here’s something that you need to remember…your granddaughter is not a statistic. Her story is not written and there…