Helping Kids Cope with Divorce

What your children need YOU to hear

I need both of you to stay involved in my life.
Please call me, email, text, and ask me lots of questions.
When you don’t stay involved, I feel like I’m not important and that you don’t really love me.
Please stop fighting and work hard to get along with each other.
Try to agree on matters related to me.
When you fight about me, I think that I did something wrong and I feel guilty.
I want to love you both and enjoy the time that I spend with each of you.
Please support me and the time that I spend with each of you.
If you act jealous or upset, I feel like I need to take sides and love one parent more than the other.
Please communicate directly with each other so that I don’t have to send messages back and forth between you.
When talking about my other parent, please say only nice things, or don’t say anything at all.
When you say mean, unkind things about my other parent, I feel like you are expecting me to take your side.
Please remember that I want both of you to be a part of my life.
I count on my mom and dad to raise me, to teach me what is important, and to help me when I have problems.