6. You will not be alone.
Tell your children that you will always be there for them, no matter what. Encourage them to ask questions. Make sure they know they can come to you whenever they want to and need to. You are the one building a stable life for them.  They need to rely on your comfort and strength.

7. I know you are sad.
Be compassionate and aware of the feelings of your child. Comfort your children and hug them. They need to know that you know about their pain and that you know that they are upset. It will make it easier for them to comprehend that you will do everything in your power to help heal the wounds.

8. You can always call mom / dad.
Separating parents will, whether you like it or not, create a perception of distance between the children and parents. It is up to you to limit that distance and perhaps even remove it entirely over time. An important tool is to build an open communication channel between the children and each parent. Tell them that they will always be able to call mom/dad, whenever they need and want to. Discuss other emerging communication channels such as email and text messages. In fact, for teenagers, text messaging has become the most important way of communicating with their parents.

9. You will see mom  … / You will see dad …
A parenting schedule is an important part of your future life with your children and an important part of the stability they need. As soon as you have an idea how the parenting schedule will look, provide as much information as you possibly can. Avoid changes and the discussion about changes which may be very confusing to your children. You will be surprised how quickly even young children can understand and adjust to parenting plans and how confusing changes are to them.

10. Mom and dad love you very much.
We cannot emphasize enough how important this sentence is. While you are in pain, a divorce is more than likely making  your children wonder whether you or your spouse may abandon them or whether they are at fault that the divorce is happening. Make sure that they know that they are loved very much by both mom and dad. Depending on the age of your children you will be faced with questions of a possible stepmom and a stepdad. And depending on the situation – we assume that both mom and dad will want to stay in the children’s lives – they need to know that there may be other people coming into their lives, but there will only be one mom and one dad.

>>Like this Post? Want More? Join our Forum and follow Single Parent Gossip on Twitter and Facebook!

Pages: 1 2

Tags: children, co-parenting, single dad, single mom

Related Articles on Single Parent Gossip:

• Kids Education Challenge Grows With Age (1)
• Money Does Not Buy Love: 9 Single Parent Holiday Tips (0)
• Straight Talk: How To Teach Your Child Respect (7)
• Six Essential Single Parent Tips For Halloween (15)
• Number Of Single Moms Tripled Over Past Four Decades (5)
• Traditional Family Fading Away (5)
• Do Children make You Angry? (1)
• Daycare At Home May Double TV Time For Your Children (1)
• Weekly Safety Recall Alert: 1 Million McLaren Strollers (1)
• Women Losing Custody Battles More Often (11)
• Top 10 Toys List November 2009 (3)
• Lisa and Wolfgang’s Halloween Fun and Safety List – Update (3)
• Good To Know: What Single Parents Do Every Day (2)
• What you need to know to help you and your baby manage stress (2)
• Battling Over Bitty Briefs … Ah, Co-Parenting (0)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under divorce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.