If you are going through a divorce, you should consider the well-being of your children as a top priority. An Orange County family attorney can provide you with important advice on how to safeguard your children’s emotional health during the difficult divorce process.
An Orange County Family Attorney Explains Why You Must Reassure Your Children
The divorce process will not require many dramatic changes in the basic needs of your children. Divorced spouses should be able to provide children with the essentials such as food, housing, and clothing. However, children may require more subtle emotional support. The best way for parents to help their children survive the divorce is to constantly reassure them that their parents love them and will take care of them. Children can be reassured in several ways.
- Information—Children can be reassured by information about the divorce, but the message must be basic and age specific. You can tell them that you are divorcing your spouse, but you should not elaborate on why.
- Structure—A consistent routine involving bedtimes and meals is actually more effective than words in reassuring the children that their parents still care about them.
- Your example—How parents handle the divorce process can affect their children’s own adjustment to the divorce. If they see their parents beaten down by divorce, they will likely feel similarly. But if the parents handle the change with fortitude and grace, the children will feel reassured and join them in weathering the changes. Your Orange County family lawyer will emphasize that children will adapt to the divorce as well as you do.
An Orange County Family Attorney Will Urge You to Monitor Your Children
Your Orange County family attorney will remind you to monitor the development of the children during the divorce. The conflict stemming from divorce can often hamper a child’s development and even lead to regression. For instance, children who are sufficiently toilet-trained may experience a sudden increase in toilet mishaps.
Children are capable of recovering from such delays or regressions as the divorce situation stabilizes, but your Orange County family lawyer will advise you to seek professional help at the first sign of dramatic regression or bizarre behavior. If your children physically attack siblings and other children, you should consult an appropriate doctor or a therapist immediately.
Contact Us
Orange County family attorney Bethanie Fanti can help you take steps to guide your children through the difficult divorce process. Call today at 714-505-3108.