Tips for Divorcing Parents
A divorce is even more traumatic when there are children involved. But many parents have misconceptions about dealing with kids during a divorce.
One of the major misconceptions parents have during a divorce is that they have failed as parents. Your children would not agree with that. Getting divorced does not reflect on your role as a parent, and has nothing to do, in fact, with your parenting skills. Rest assured your children are very likely to understand that.
Many parents also suffer from extreme guilt, believing that their children will turn out dysfunctional as a result of the divorce, and fearing that they will not have a normal family life. The fact is that children often deal with insecurities even when the parents are married to each other, and seem like normal and happy families.
There are some rules that parents need to keep in mind when they're going through a divorce. No matter how bad the situation with your ex-spouse is, don't bad mouth your ex-ex-and avoid complaining or forcing your children to take sides in your marriage.
Remember, your children will only absorb the kind of information that you put out there, and if the only thing that is coming out of your mouth is trash talk about the other parent, you can rest assured that this will impact them as they grow older.
Encourage children to have a good relationship with the other parent. This of course, doesn't work in those cases, when the other parent has a history of child abuse, or violence. However in most cases, children only benefit when both of the parents make an attempt to encourage the child to have healthy relationships with both of the parents.