Cleveland Family Law Attorneys

How To Support Your Children When Going Through A Divorce

Father and Son

Education.com has provided a very helpful list of ways to help your children cope with divorce. Click here to view the full article. The list is a resource to use to make sure that your children see this as a positive step for your family instead of a hardship. The first five steps that the article lists are:

  1. Provide Love and Reassurance: make sure your child knows that your love for them hasn’t changed and that the divorce is not their fault. Some kids blame themselves for divorce and think that things will change drastically as their parents separate.

  2. Encourage Communication: explore ways that your child likes to express themselves and support that avenue. Encourage one on one communication between you and your kids as much as possible. Letting a child express themselves and their feelings are important in helping them learn to cope.

  3. Validate Their Feelings: tell your child that their reaction to divorce is normal and it is a hard process for everyone involved. Letting your children know that feeling sad or worried about your split is good. It helps a child understand the complexity of relationships.

  4. Make Future Plans: make an effort to make plans with your child a regular occurrence, ie weekly movies. This will provide structure for them and help enforce the idea that you are still a family.

  5. Be Consistent With Your Ex-Spouse: make sure that despite the separation you are both on the same parenting page, provide stability in disciplinary measures and maintain communication about your child’s work in school and social life.

The article goes through these 5 steps and 5 more in greater depth. It is a great resource for helping the whole family cope and your children maintain healthy relationships.

Have you been considering a divorce from your spouse? Consult a Cleveland divorce attorney today.

According to ChildrenAndDivorce.com, one out of every ten children experiences three or more parental marriage breakups in their life. There are nearly 40% of children in America growing up without fathers present. Statistically, 50% of children who are born into a married couple are going to experience divorce by the time they are 18 years old.

Children are affected by a divorce in many ways, some psychological ways that a child is affected are: Teenage children are three times more likely to need professional psychological help within a year of the divorce, and children tend to have more psychological problems than a child who suffers a death of a parent. Some examples of health problems that develop: children living with both parents are 20-35% healthier than children in broken homes, children in broken homes are more likely to be molested, and children living in single-family homes are more likely to be exposed to drugs. Children are very sensitive to their living status and it is always important to try and keep a safe and healthy environment for children to group up in.

Eric Laubacher

If you are going through a divorce and you and your spouse are not agreeing consult a Cleveland divorce attorney before your children suffer. It is important when you have children to try and make sure that the relationship that you have with your spouse is a healthy one. This will benefit you and your children. If you feel like a mediator is needed in your divorce your instincts are correct. Protect yourself, your family, your children, and your assets. Contact Eric Laubacher at Laubacher & Co. for a free consultation at (440) 336-8687.