When my daughter was young and beginning to experience joint custody, I (Dana Del George) struggled to explain divorce to her. She and I were making up fairy tales for each other one day when I was inspired with an idea. I spun a fairy tale about The Queen of Fire and the King of Ice, who wanted to marry and live together but couldn't make it last because of their opposite natures. However, their child of cloud could live comfortably in both the queen's castle of fire and the king's castle of ice. "That's just like me!" my daughter exclaimed.
With the encouragement of friends and family, I self-published this divorce fairy tale as a children's book in 2009. I am touched and delighted every time I hear about a kid finding comfort and peace in this story. As Bruno Bettelheim argued, fairy tales are good for child psychology, and this tale offers an antidote to the shame and blame that joint-custody kids are often exposed to as bystanders to the conflict between their parents.
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