Helping Your Children Through a Separation and Divorce
When parents separate and decide to divorce, they have the difficult task of restructuring a family. Children often are confused, angry, frightened, and sad about what is happening in their lives. Here are some things parents can do to help their child:
– Don’t criticize the other parent in front of your child.
– Don’t ask the child to choose between his or her parents.
– Keep visitation schedules clear and consistent. Keep changes to the visitation to a minimum as much as possible.
– Assure your children that they are not the cause of the separation or divorce.
– Don’t have your child act as a messenger between parents. This puts children in the middle of the conflict unnecessarily.
– Give your child consistency and limits.
– Enforce the relationships the child has with other family members – both your family members as well as the other parent’s family members.
– Remember that both parents will have to keep in contact about child-related issues at least until the child turns 18 (if not longer). It’s best to implement good communication skills from the beginning to avoid misunderstandings.
Khadilkar Law offers services to parents going through a separation or divorce, as well as services to parents changing their custody arrangement. Please contact us for a consultation.