Regardless of the age of your children, if you decide to divorce you’ll need to bring this to light at some point. The only time this doesn’t come into play is if any of your children are too young to understand what is going on.
There are many steps you can take to ease your children into the divorce process, ensuring that they know exactly what is going on now and what will happen in the future.
Here are five tips that can help you with this conversation:
- Let your children know that they did nothing wrong. You don’t want your children to think they had something to do with your divorce. Instead, make it clear up front that this is not the case.
- Answer questions. It doesn’t matter what your children ask, you must be willing to provide the best possible answer. You don’t have to share too much with them, but being open and honest is an absolute must.
- Schedule enough time to work through everything. Once you’re talking about your divorce, it’s a good idea to get through everything in the same conversation. This doesn’t mean you’ll never discuss it again, but at least you can get everything on the table.
- Think like your child. How would you feel if you were your child? What questions would you have? When you think like your child it’s much easier to provide the right information and advice.
- Stick with the same routines. Even if little things change day by day, you should do your best to keep your children in their routine, such as where they sleep at night and when they leave for school. This type of structure can go a long way in eliminating unnecessary stress.
These are just a few of the many things you can do to ease your children into the divorce process.
While you’re doing this, be sure to focus on your personal situation as well. There is a lot that goes into a successful divorce, so you don’t want to make a mistake.