Practice Areas
DIVORCE ARTICLES
Three Reasons to Tell Your Kids About Your Divorc
Divorce can affect a lot of people, but the most affected individuals are
certainly the children of the couple split asunder. Children’s emotions are
fairly unsettled and easily triggered, so it is preferable that you break
the news to them in a fashionable and reasonable way which they are capable
of handling. The last thing you want during a divorce is more stress and
more heartbreak, therefore telling your children about it is a very
important matter. For these reasons, you must urgently get the word across
to your kids that a possible (or certain) divorce is in the future.
Reason 1 - Your kids will respect you more if you are more open and honest
to them. Kids hate parents who keep everything in and hide the obvious.
Telling your kids in advance will give them forewarning and will lead to the
kid having larger trust for that parent. If you plan on claiming rights of
the children, then you should aim at being as truthful and open to your kids
about the divorce as possible. Bundling it in and not informing them can
cause even more severe problems down the road.
Reason 2 – Telling kids prior to the divorce will give them time to react
and cope before the actual heat of the moment. As stated before, children's’
minds are scattered and are hard to please in every way. Telling a kid
sooner, though, will give them time to react. Kids need this time of
thinking to mature, and not telling them won’t give them this opportunity to
earn trust in themselves and you. They can grow from this experience, but
telling them too late might cause them to recoil and only show negative
feelings wishing they would have known earlier.
Reason 3 – Your kids have the right to know! If you love them, and you know
what’s best for them, you should make it known to them that you will be
getting a divorce. The longer a kid goes knowing that something is wrong,
the more anxious and uptight they will be whenever they’re around you. If
you inform them that a divorce is in the future, they can redirect their
emotions, because of this. Most importantly, though, your children should
just know.
Kids react to situations differently than adults do. You should not expect
any type of reaction, since depending on the age, your kids might not be
mature enough to understand the concept of the matter. The bottom line is
that you should tell our kids about a divorce as soon as possible. No matter
how you say it, they might not take it in a good way, but at least they know
the truth, and can learn to cope with what is expected.