Vacations are one context in which family members have the opportunity to spend uninterrupted time together and bond through shared experiences. Some families, however, are not comfortable spending long periods of time together. One remedy is to balance interactions with time apart by using technology to take a break from the break that is family vacation.

We come to NCFR equipped with varied backgrounds, skill sets, perspectives, and often we are seeking different benefits of membership.

When founders Paul Sayre, Ernest Burgess, and Sidney E. Goldstein first began to communicate about NCFR, they envisioned a multidisciplinary organization that “through academic research and discourse among all disciplines could be instrumental in improving the lives of all families.”

NCFR has access to a wealth of research on families culled from presentations at our annual conference and articles from its journals and other publications. We are constantly developing new methods to deliver this content to you and your fellow family professionals in ways that are useful, relevant, and timely.

My career path with children and families has spanned 50 years. It began as an undergraduate student at Loyola University in Chicago being assigned to a work-study job in the Child Guidance Clinic.

Perspectives is a regular Network column edited by Dr. Clara Gerhardt, CFLE, Professor in Human Development and Family Science at Samford University. In this article, Dr. Mark Roseman shares his perspective on providing information and support to divorcing parents.

As fathers, we feel so proud seeing our family grow and thrive, and we hope that in some ways we have been contributing to that family stability. Then slowly and insidiously, it starts crumbling and falling apart. The two parents no longer pull in the same direction; one parent leaves. There are resentments, disharmony, and open displays of anger. If as a father you feel that this battle is also separating you from your children, your world basically falls apart.

A range of reasons exists for a family structure that is absent a father, including divorce, lack of commitment, limitation of resources, choice, legal ramifications, interpersonal communication challenges, and death. This article offers a personal account encompassing an 80-year reflection on the effect of father absence on an individual’s life.

For many years, I have been a passionate advocate for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). I have conducted SoTL research, sometimes also called classroom action research, and encouraged others to design and carry out similar research projects. My favorite definition of SoTL is one formulated by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Illinois State University: “Systematic reflection of teaching and learning made public.”

The CFLE online discussion group will make it easier to find Family Life Education resources, to ask a question of fellow CFLEs, and to promote relevant trainings and conferences. In general, it will facilitate your enthusiasm for connecting and collaborating with your CFLE colleagues.

The 2017 CFLE Special Recognition Award was presented to Jerica M. Berge at the NCFR Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida.

This is the first installment of a new feature in the CFLE Network newsletter. CFLEs will use the Case Study Process developed by the Ethics Committee of the Minnesota Council on Family Relations to consider a representative situation faced by family professionals. We welcome your feedback, as well as suggestions for future scenarios.

In your small group, select a group leader, recorder, and reporter. Steps 1 through 4 focus on ethical thinking. This is important; give it plenty of time. Practitioners tend to leap to brainstorming possible actions and solutions before thoroughly engaging in the process.

An informative book that highlights major developmental milestones, fathers’ roles, and overall importance during the first 12 months of their infants’ lives.

When I began reading this book, I truly wondered about the value of an economics book on the psychology of happiness. And true to form, it is an economics book, so it focused on production of goods, but here it is “mental goods.”

The success of the edition for couples no doubt inspired this latest singles edition. The back cover of the book includes a list of ways in which the book will help the reader, including gaining self-understanding, growing closer to your friends, and identifying missing ingredients in present and past relationships.

Attendees at the 2017 NCFR Annual Conference had another amazing conference experience! We are grateful to Program Chair Maureen Perry-Jenkins, the program planning committee, and the NCFR staff for planning a wonderful program.

The 2017 Annual Conference demonstrated progress in the focus of many sessions—including plenaries—on social justice themes, such as the obstacles facing refugee families and other groups who are underrepresented and marginalized, as well as victims of violent acts and oppressive policies.

Dr. Anthony James, of Ohio’s Miami University, has served on several NCFR conference panels discussing his experiences in working with and engaging his community in discussion related to diversity, race, ethnicity, bias, and discrimination.

A special welcome to these NCFR members who joined between October and December 2017. We are glad you are here!

Although still a small field, the study of labeling a nonkin relationship “family” has received some attention in the U.S. Studies have given various names to such ties: fictive kin, voluntary kin, discretionary kin, and nonconventional kin, to name the most common ones.

One thing I learned from editing this issue on fictive kin: No one who does work on this topic seems to like that term.

In this article, I analyze a case study in which the word like is used to describe one relationship and omitted to describe another. The comparison highlights what the word like does and what shifts make it disappear.