What is It? The purpose of this blog is to provide separated or divorced parents with practical suggestions on how to keep their children feeling safe and secure in the midst of change. It is a place of hope: we can ensure our children thrive despite divorce.
The blog will give tips and tricks on how to handle the daily changes in family traditions, rituals, and actions. Please add your own ideas and suggestions so others can benefit from your experience. Please post your ideas, questions and suggestions by clicking on the “Comments” section beneath each blog post. Note: I will delete hostile or negative comments. The purpose of this blog is to provide ideas and hope for parents going through this difficult time.
Why This Blog: How do you keep your children safe and secure even though they aren’t living with two parents in the same house? Families with mom, dad, and children all united in one household employ traditions and wisdom handed down from their parents and elders. But in this new world, we need to develop and share our own traditions that build family strength and keep children grounded.
When I originally searched the web for practical, tested ideas for how to handle birthdays, holidays, transitions from one house to another and all the things that are changing, I couldn’t find anything beyond the general “Don’ts”:
1) Don’t fight in front of your children.
2) Don’t make them take sides between you and your former spouse.
3) Don’t try to get information about the other parent from the children. Don’t use them as go-betweens for information or decisions.
4) Don’t bad-mouth their other parent to them.
But what do you DO to minimize the negative effects of divorce and get them back to thriving again?
I started interviewing parents with kids who were thriving despite their parents’ divorce. And I gathered tips and tricks on how to make the new family structure work for the kids (and thus, work better for the parents.)
This blog is a place to share these tips and tricks and solicit your comments and ideas on how you’ve helped your children thrive after a divorce. Please post your ideas, questions and suggestions. Note: I will delete hostile or negative comments. This purpose of this blog is to provide ideas and hope for parents going through this difficult time.
Helping Children Cope with Divorce 
T,
Wow! I so wish this sort of thing had been available when I went through my divorce with young children. Unfortunately, I had one, who despite the heavy weight of the situation, thrived, my other one buckled beneath it. =(
Thank you for your beautiful service to others in providing this – I read it with tears in my eyes.
I bid you and your children the very best.
Tami
I am what people call a “thriving” child of divorce, so I’m happy to answer any direct questions that people may have. I was 3 when my parents divorced and I’m now 22. I have spent a lot of time volunteering/interning with an organization called Kids’ Turn. I highly recommend this non-profit group, although I’m not sure what kind of audience this blog is for…most of Kids’ Turn is in California. Thanks!!