Living with Mum and Living with Dad: My Two Homes

By Melanie Walsh, Walker Books, 2012.

‘My mum and dad don’t live together anymore so sometimes I live with my mum and sometimes with my dad.’

Separation and divorce are always difficult subjects to broach with young children. This is the ideal picture book for very small children to help them understand and navigate the changes are or will be occurring during parental divorce. Living with Mum and Living with Dad: My Two Homes is a lift-the-flap book that offers a level of interactivity with things to find under flaps within the pages. The flaps are also used as a device to help show some of the differences between the child’s two homes.

Living with Mum and Living with Dad: My Two Homes aims to reassure your child that while there may be changes and differences to life moving forward, everything is going to be ok. Even with the differences, there are still some things that remain familiar, such as the child’s favourite toys that she can take to both houses, the love of both parents, and the extended family.

The love of both parents equally is a common theme throughout the book, which can help children feel loved and give them a sense of belonging in both worlds.