Telling your children about your divorce is an incredibly challenging experience. How you and your spouse handle this conversation will have a profound impact on their ability to cope with this major life change, so it is crucial to handle it with sensitivity, honesty, and compassion. Despite the troubles you and your spouse are going through, it is also imperative to approach this conversation together. You need to reassure your children that the two of you will continue to be in their lives as parents even though you will no longer be married to one another.
Tips to Help You Through the Conversation
You might not know where to begin when it comes to telling your children about your divorce. To ensure you emphasize the right messages at this time, it would be wise to prepare what you plan to say. You do not need to write a script, but a few simple notes would be helpful and can keep the conversation on the right track.
Here are some additional tips that will help you navigate this important conversation:
- Choose the right time: There is no perfect time to tell your children about your divorce, but there are more appropriate times to do so. Never have this conversation at a time when they cannot ask any follow-up questions. Instead, consider telling them over the weekend, so they have some time to process the information.
- Let them know what they can expect: Divorce causes a lot of anxiety for children because it makes them feel uncertain about the future. To ease their anxieties, try to give them a basic idea of what they can expect to happen in the coming weeks. Will you or your spouse move out of the family home? How often can your children visit their other parent? You might not have all the answers now, but provide what you can. That said, you do not need to explain to them why the divorce is happening.
- Let them know they are loved: There is no doubt that you love your children, but they might not feel so certain of that right now, so emphasize this point. You should also let them know the divorce was not their fault and that they could not have done anything to prevent it.
- Be available: Your children might not ask or say everything that is on their mind during this first conversation, so make yourself available to them in the aftermath. Although this will be a hard time for everyone in your family, you can make it easier by being there for each other.
Contact a Compassionate Divorce Attorney Today!
If you are getting divorced, you will need a compassionate and experienced divorce attorney on your side to help you navigate this complex process. At Kallen Law Firm, LLC, we are committed to helping clients through one of the most difficult times they will likely ever experience.
Call our office today at (314) 441-7793 to schedule a free consultation.
