South Surrey author, life coach adds musician to resumé

A South Surrey life coach and author has added a new note to her shared-parenting efforts: she’s released a song about it.

Karen Kristjanson said We’ll Dance at our Daughter’s Wedding reflects the same ideas as her 2017 book, Co-Parenting from the Inside Out: Voices of Moms and Dads.

Described as “country, folk-style,” the song “reminds parents that even after a separation or divorce, it’s possible to maintain a connection with each other,” Kristjanson says in a release issued earlier this month.

“The lyrics are based on my own experience, post-divorce, but their application is universal. They tell the story of the marriage’s end but also how a way was found to share parenting responsibilities.”

Kristjanson said she learned how important – and contentious – shared parenting is while researching and writing her book. That project was completed over the course of six years and 42 interviews.

Ahead of her book’s launch in 2017, the mother of two told Peace Arch News the tome came about through her own experiences raising her sons in a joint-custody arrangement. At the time – she was divorced in 1991 – there were no how-to books to help guide her journey, she said.

She hopes her song “will be picked up by a well-known singer and become an anthem for the shared parenting movement.”