Valerie McKinnon considers that the quality of parenting is the decisive factor in the mental and physical health of children today. Her book examines the changes in societal attitudes to marriage, divorce and parenting. In the late 1980's, divorce was thought to be deeply damaging to the institution of the family: it followed that children could be irrevocably damaged should divorce occur within the family unit. Her original research indicated that this was not always the case, and, indeed, recent research puts a parent or parents, at the centre of children's welfare. Today, many are concerned about the problems caused by inadequate parenting and her book outlines the reasons why parenting has gone awry in a number of cases. Valerie outlines attempts made by Governments to address these problems and suggests how we might take responsibility for improving our own lives and also become more responsive to societal shifts. She also uses the experiences of her research group to show how individuals have led fulfilling lives after experiencing family breakdown.