Tips for Telling Young Kids About a Divorce

Talking with divorce attorneys is of vital importance when you and your spouse are contemplating ending your marriage. You need to work with legal professionals so you can make informed choices about how to end your marriage while protecting your rights. Brown & Charbonneau, LLP can provide you with assistance with all aspects of your divorce and can work with you throughout the marriage dissolution process so you will have an experienced advocate on your side.  

Divorce attorneys are not the only ones who you will need to talk to about your divorce, though. You also need to be able to break the news that your marriage is ending to your children. If you have young kids, it can be really difficult to know what to say to them. Young children may not have a lot of understanding of the concept of divorce, and it can be challenging to help very young children to feel secure while their life is changing.

Tips for Talking with Young Kinds About Your Divorce

Huffington Post provides eight different tips on talking with young children about divorce. These tips include the following:

• Keep the info you share age appropriate. Your kids do not need to know lots of details about who wronged who or why the marriage is ending. Instead, explain what the divorce means for them and don’t share details about your personal lives.
• Maintain a united front. Both parents need to set clear boundaries and be on the same page in answering all questions about their divorce.
• Avoid blame. Your kids do not need to know who is at fault and neither parent should be badmouthing the other in any way when it comes to talking about the divorce.
• Make sure the kids know they didn’t cause divorce. You should tell kids something simple about why you are divorcing which has nothing to do with them. For example, you may want to just say you grew apart or don’t get along living together any more.
• Don’t tell your kids until you are sure you are getting divorced. When possible, wait until you have a signed divorce agreement and/or until one of you is moving out so there won’t be a protracted period of confusion or uncertainty.
• Pick a time when you can provide emotional support. You should make sure you choose the right timing to tell them about the divorce. Let their teacher know, and try to provide additional time with extended family like grandparents so they have outside support systems.
• Be consistent and provide details on the future. You should let your kids know what is going to happen next, but make sure not to make any promises you cannot keep.
• Remain calm. Your kids are always watching you, so you never want to let your anxiety show in front of your children.

How Can You Make Divorce Easier for Young Kids?

Being smart about how you break the news of your divorce is very important. However, you need to do as much as possible to make the divorce easy for your kids. This means going beyond just having the right kinds of conversations. You also want to make certain that you make the entire divorce process as stress free and quick as possible, and you want to make sure you create a custody arrangement that actually makes sense for your kids and family.

Working with Orange County divorce attorneys can help you to make the divorce process go as smoothly as it can, given the fact that a divorce is always a difficult situation for families to go through. An attorney can help you to try to negotiate an out-of-court agreement with your ex to avoid contentious litigation. Your lawyer can also assist you with making smart choices about custody so you can find a solution that keeps your kids feeling secure and that allows a strong relationship to continue to develop with both parents. The sooner you begin working with a lawyer and get appropriate legal help, the easier your divorce process will go.

Getting Help from Orange County Divorce Attorneys

Brown & Charbonneau, LLP provides help to families going through the divorce process so you can make smart decisions on child custody and so you can end your marriage as quickly as possible so you and your children can move on with your life. To find out more about how Orange County divorce attorneys help you with the process of dissolving your marriage, give us a call at (866)237-8129 or contact us online.