A divorcing parent may have many worries about how their kids will handle the divorce and its aftermath. Thus, one thing that will often be a very high priority for a parent during and after a divorce is helping their kids cope with the divorce.
One of the things parents can do to try to help their kids adjust to the family’s post-divorce situation is to work hard to maintain as much consistency for the kids as they reasonably can. A divorce and the time following it can be a time of some pretty mammoth changes within a family. In times of great change, consistency can be a great comfort and help to kids.
Here are some of the ways parents can work to provide consistency for their kids following a divorce:
- Coordinate with one’s ex to keep both parents’ sets of rules for the kids (such as rules regarding meals, homework and bedtimes) reasonably consistent with one another.
- Try to keep the post-divorce rules for the kids as consistent with what the rules were prior to the divorce as is feasible.
- Maintain a regular schedule for the kids.
Something to note when it comes to that last point is that one of the things that can be a major competent of a child’s schedule following a divorce is the scheduling of when the child will be going from one parent to the other. Thus, the value of consistency of scheduling for kids is one of the things divorcing parents may want to keep in mind when working out the scheduling of such transfers when coming up with a child custody agreement.
As this underscores, there are a wide range of different things parents may want to take into account when working out a child custody agreement.
Source: KSL, “5 ways to help children understand, deal with divorce,” Jennifer Sorensen, April 29, 2015