Does cooperation help your child in a divorce?

As parents going through a divorce, you have more to worry about than a childless couple. After all, your top priorities will likely revolve around ways to make this event as trauma-free as possible for them.

But is there any way to do that? Can you actually make divorce easier for your child to handle? And if so, how?

Provide your child with stability

When Psychology Today discusses top tips for easing a child into the news of divorce, this is among their highest rated suggestions: cooperation. It seems simple, but of course, cooperation is often difficult in times of duress. Even in amiable divorce situations, you will likely run into periods of time where you argue with each other. If the divorce is not amiable, cooperation may seem nearly impossible.

But it is a surefire way to provide your child with a sense of stability that can help them process the divorce. When both parents approach the topic together, they feel like not much has changed between the dynamics in their family. This gives them a sturdier base to rely on, which in turn allows them to process the news of changes in the future in a more calm and collected way.

Coordinate with your co-parent

It also gives you and your co-parent a chance to coordinate yourselves. What questions do you think your child will ask? How should you answer them? What information do they even need to know? What information should they not learn about at all? When working together, you can come up with answers to all of these and implement them in a joint discussion. This allows for seamless transfer of information and limits confusion.