Divorce happens all the time and many people who divorce have children. As such, eventually, their children will need to know that a divorce is happening. But, it can be difficult to know what the right way is to talk to children about such a difficult conversation.
While there’s no correct way to talk about divorce to your kids, you may be able to get some help along the way. Here’s what you can consider doing:
Discuss what will change after the divorce
As you know, there will be tons of changes after the divorce, however, your children may not realize this yet. You may be able to provide some insight as to how things will change in the future. For example, you may know that your children will need to change schools or you may discuss how they’ll live with their other parent sometimes and you the other times.
Give your children the time to ask questions
Talking about divorce can be overwhelming for you and your children. In most cases, children will want to ask a lot of questions about divorce. This allows them to process exactly what’s happening since they likely don’t have any prior experience with divorce.
If your children ask questions, you should know that you may not have an answer for everything. A divorce can take a lot of turns during the process. Conversely, there may be questions that you can’t and shouldn’t share the answers to, but, instead, you can give them a child-friendly version. The best you may be able to do is give your children what answers you do have.
If you’re just starting the divorce process and you have children to think about, then you may need to know what your legal rights are.