January is generally a fairly popular month for divorces; following the holiday season there tends to be an increase in divorce filings.
The specific timing of a divorce can have a wide variety of different impacts. For example, the timing of a divorce sometimes has tax implications. Also, what specific types of challenges the children of a divorcing couple will be particularly likely to face can be impacted by what point during the year a divorce occurs.
For January divorces and other divorces that occur during the winter season, one area that can be of particular concern when it comes to children of a divorcing couple is school, given that the winter season falls in the middle of the school year.
Thus, it is very important for couples who are getting divorced in the winter season who have school-aged children to make sure to always keep in mind how their actions in their divorce could potentially affect their child’s school performance and to do what they can to minimize the impact of the divorce on their child and their child’s ability to do well at school.
One thing parents who are getting divorced can do to try to minimize the school-related impacts a divorce has on their child is to endeavor to keep as much stability as possible in their child’s routines, including school-related routines, during the divorce. Thus, keeping their child’s routines in mind can be very important when divorcing parents are negotiating things such as temporary child custody arrangements.
Source: The Huffington Post, “January Divorces Pose Special Challenges for Children,” Rosalind Sedacca, Jan. 21, 2014