Going through divorce often proves a dramatic and stressful time for everyone involved, but divorcing parents may sometimes forget this also involves your child. After all, their life will also end up inevitably changed by this development just as much as your own.
Thus, you may wonder what you can do to make the situation and transition easier on them. Though there is no easy answer, there are steps you can take to help them adjust and accept the possible future at hand.
Benefits for you and your co-parent
As stated by Psychology Today, you can do several things to help ease your child into acceptance of the divorce. However, one of the simplest things you can do is cooperating with your co-parent. This serves a purpose both for you and for your child, providing benefits to both.
For you and your co-parent, it gives you the ability to more closely monitor each other when having discussions with your child. Experts suggest you do not hold one-on-one conversations between each parent and your child individually, anyway. This opens the door to the possibility of bias seeping into the narrative, which can lead to problems like parental alienation.
It also allows you to plan your conversations in advance. Together, you can work on anticipating the questions your child may ask and what answers you want to give. You can decide what information you want to leave unsaid and what you want to share, and get potential arguing out of the way before you take it to your child.
Benefits for your child
For your child, it provides an important source of stability. If they see they can still rely on both of you despite your tense situation, they will often feel more comforted and have an easier time accepting divorce in the future. It also shows them you have the maturity necessary to work through tough times, which further contributes to that feeling.
