Mom's House, Dad's House is a deserved classic of the divorce advice genre, which has become conventional wisdom.

The basic premise of the book is that the children of divorce deserve two homes where they feel secure, which can be provided by a professional relationship between co-parents. There are barriers to this ideal, both pragmatic, because splitting a household is inherently disruptive and finances are strained, but also largely emotional.

On the emotional front, the first trap is escaping from negative intimacy. In a marriage that is dissolving, previous closeness has been replaced by damage. You're still tied to your partner, but you don't like them, and the feeling is mutual. It's very unlikely to flip negative intimacy to positive intimacy, because life isn't an anime where you're dueling in prototype mecha and hooking up afterwards, but you can build a professional relationship based on clear expectations of doing best by your children, which can become a friendship after years.

A second trap is your own emotional instability, either caused by the stress of divorce, the opportunities of your new life, or flashbacks of intimacy relating to your own partner. Whatever you're feeling, you have to be there for your kids, and be stable and supportive, because they need you.

And finally, the third emotional harm is toxic language around visitation, custody, and exes, which treats one parent as less important, less involved, and the relationship between the two people are defined by common trauma rather than shared interest in their child.

The only mark against this book is a certain obsolescence. Originally written in the 1980s and updated in 1997, it assumes some heteronormativity, and offers technological solutions for problems which are trivially solved by smartphones.