How A Divorce Affects Children
Understanding how divorce affects children is a big question that most separating parents have. This question is big and can greatly depend on each families unique situation, the age of the children and many more variables. Many experts are not even sure how to answer this question because of the variables that need to be considered, but research has some key ideas on how children may react to these situations.
It is good to know that how your kids are affected is greatly determined by how you, and the other parent handle the situation. Working with the other parent and creating a healthy environment can make your children resilient, or may make the children act out and not adjust well to the new situation.
When you are going through a divorce, oftentimes child custody is the hardest thing to sort out. Parenting alone is already tricky and has its own unique challenges, and it is multitudes more challenging trying to co parent when you live in separate places and have your own unique schedule. When parents are contesting the custody of their children they are required to attend parenting classes.
Parenting is already hard enough. Add a divorce to the mix, and your job as a parent gets infinitely more difficult. For parents who have separated, you’re not only dealing with raising your child, you’re trying to figure out how to raise your child the way you want to. In any relationship, parents have different ideas about how to best raise a child, including what rules to set, how to discipline children, what hours children should keep, what activities children should participate in… the list goes on. If you and your former spouse are having a difficult time communicating, compromising, or overall doing what’s best for your child, you may need the help of a parenting consultant. At Johnson Mediation, our Chanhassen, MN parenting consultants are here to help make sure your divorce does not stop your child from flourishing.
Many divorcing couples are concerned that mediation may not work. They are fearful that their situation may be too difficult or they may not know a lot about mediation. Although some couples are able to be fairly respectful of one another and work together in divorce mediation, this does not mean you should compare yourself to them. More than most, divorces are not this smooth. Due to things that have happened in the past, complex emotions arise and make it extremely difficult to negotiate with one another. If you are experiencing the troubles of not being able to negotiate it will be very beneficial for the two of you to go to a mediator in order to delegate.
