When a married couple gets a divorce, it takes a toll on the whole family, especially the kids. While the adults feel battered, it’s nothing compared to the pain and confusion their kids could be experiencing. There is a transitional phase that will be rough, despite the natural resilience of young ones to make peace with significant changes.
Understand How Divorce Can Affect Your Child
If you and your spouse have tried hard to make things work, but are ready to throw in the towel, here are a few things to bear in mind as you carry your family through this difficult time.
Poor academic performance
One of the significant ways in which kids are expected to rebel against their parents’ divorce is to do poorly in school. They may not mean to rebel so much as attempt to process the changing dynamics of their families. This does leave little mental space to accommodate school work. Whatever the case may be, expect grades to plummet a bit, and don’t blame them; they’re distracted and unable to focus on other things besides the drama of family life.
Financial issues
Understanding how divorce can affect your child is about looking at the whole big picture. While the financial matters that hit a couple beginning divorce proceedings seem to be kept under wraps and away from the kids, the opposite is true. While the lawyers are being paid and the estranged spouse is forced to stay at a hotel while things are sorted out, kids can suffer through the consequences. Explaining to them why they can’t go to the movies or take piano lessons suddenly can be hard.
The legal experts over at https://moloneyandpartners.com.au/family-lawyers-adelaide/ recommend that you map out finances as carefully as possible. This means even if it is challenging to have to meditate regularly with the estranged spouse. Also, be sure that the costs expended – or not – during this period are eventually recompensed via child support. That way, your kids don’t feel worse in the aftermath by missing out on things that feel important to them.
Mood swings
Because the divorce can spell considerable changes to the familiar structure and impinge on a kid’s life in different ways, it is likely for them to feel angry, irritable, or be more sensitive than usual. Be patient as your child is likely to experience several overwhelming emotions that can be hard to contain. But note that these will eventually dissipate. This is especially true if both parents handle them with a measure of honesty and empathy.
Guilt
Besides the evident changes to their mood, some kids might turn inward on the news of an impending divorce. They will attempt to look for reasons as to why their parents no longer love each other. It is possible that they might eventually blame themselves. Their thought processes typically point to themselves as the culprits. Doing this causes them to be more introverted, feel stressed out, and in the worst cases, deal with depression.
Understand How Divorce Can Affect Your Child
At the end of the day, while a divorce is a rough and sometimes hellish process, it shouldn’t be so awful that your kids emerge from it scarred for life. There are plenty of coping mechanisms and resources out there to ensure that kids grow up to be healthy and productive adults in the wake of divorce. So do not despair.
