8 Tips to Help You Survive the Emotional Rollercoaster of Divorce

8. Minimize the Impact on Kids

This final tip will not necessarily apply to everyone reading this as some divorces won’t involve children, but it is a vital step for those who do have children.

Pain will be felt by individuals on both sides of the aisle in a divorce; even the individual who is the aggressor in the proceedings is going to feel pain or has at some point felt pain about the loss of the relationship.

Grief and strong personal feelings are a fact of life during a divorce, but it is important to remember that that grief and those personal feelings are your burden to deal with, not your children’s burden. Children involved in a divorce are innocent parties who had nothing to do with the decision of two adults.

Whenever possible, you and your former spouse need to maintain an amicable relationship. This is especially critical in the presence of your children. When conflicts do arise it is vital that you not imply that your children should, nor openly force them to, take sides with one parent or the other.

The implications of allowing the divorce to impact children can be severe. Long term impacts range from regressive behavior such as bed wetting in younger children to risky decision making in older teens.