Matt Barnes Quotes

I think that every decision I made came from what's best for the kids. If both parents have the children's best interests in mind, it's going to go OK. The second that the parents don't do that, it gets ugly.

In case of separation, why should the children be taken from the protecting care of the mother? Who has a better right to them than she? How much do fathers generally do toward bringing them up?

You may have even an ex-wife or an ex-husband, but you can never have ex-children.

Until I separated from Parker, I had never been without them-and it's the hardest thing to share them. But we're trying to give the children the semblance of having whole lives.

To have kids and not be there every night is tough.

That thing, 'You must stay together for the kids', is out of fashion but is right. It's not arguing parents that children don't like, it is having one parent.

It's not that, you know, when a relationship doesn't work and there are issues, you have to somehow work it out if there are children involved.

My son spends as much time with his dad as he does with me.

Co-parenting is going great with Britney. The schedule has been worked out over time, and we talk when we need to. It's always about the boys - mostly school stuff - and we make sure we stay on top of that. It's going great.

Even if the two parents have decided they can't stand the sight of each other anymore, they can still back each other up, cover for each other, and fill in the blanks for each other when it comes to their cocreated children, so that neither of them has to feel as if they're having to do it all.

I do not wish to share any parenting responsibilities with Michael because he is doing so well without me.

I had to learn to respect the relationship my son had with his father outside of the three of us.

I try to do everything from the viewpoint of what's best for my kids. I have three kids and two great dads and it's not always easy, but you have to try to be a little selfless and we manage just fine.

I'm not saying that every night of the week, my husband, ex-husband, our children and I all sit around together like one big happy family. But we do see each other frequently, and everyone loves each other, and we are all friends.

My mom always said fighting with me as a kid was like going to court. I'm trying to realize that being right is not the most important thing.

As a parent, I can empathize with how difficult raising children can be. There are challenges, especially within the framework of divorce, when parental guilt can sometimes blur what should be the best decision.

My parents were divorced and I would spend weekends with my father.

The thing is, when you have a child with someone, like it or not, you're going to have to have a continuing relationship with them.

I know in my own marriage I stayed in it to provide my son with what I thought was a stable background and to give him what I thought was the family life a child should have with two parents. But that isn't always the best way, and it took me taking my son to therapy after the divorce to really see it.

Divorce is not easy, but if you genuinely put your kids first, that dictates the civility you should show each other. What example are you otherwise?

My parents were divorced when I was a young teenager, and I was raised by a single mother after that. So, I understand the difficulties that families have. I understand single parenting.

That whole business of having two homes, and that divided loyalty bind that kids get into. I mean, my parents were divorced - though I was adult - but I still grappled with being responsible to both of them.

I think people have had the understanding for many years that whatever happens with the separation of parents, that the kids automatically go to the mother. The fathers don't know their rights.

I didn't expect to be doing a whole bunch of Amber Browns. And because it was just one book, and the father had moved away, I didn't realize I was going to have to deal more with shared custody, divorce and all those issues.

My ex-husband is very involved in raising our beautiful children. We're very lucky because we both grew up in working families in middle America. We're on the same page that way.