If you’re considering a divorce, you’re probably concerned about protecting the emotional wellbeing of your children. You’re not alone in this. Luckily, all the research shows that kids can cope with a divorce without significant emotional fallout, as long as their caregivers maintain a “kids first” parenting strategy. Protecting your children emotionally is often the top concern of parents when divorcing.

5 Tips to Safeguard Your Kids During Your Divorce

Depression, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness are real risks for kids with divorcing parents. Reduce the risk for your kids, and protect your children emotionally with these five tips:

1. Make Your Child the Priority – and Let Them Know

As you move through your divorce, reaffirm with your ex-spouse that the children are your top priority. While your marriage may be ending, your responsibilities as parents are not. Tell your child or children that their wellbeing is your top concern and that you’ll do whatever you can to protect it.

2. Avoid Fights With Your Ex

Divorce is an emotionally charged time, and it’s tough to avoid falling into a nasty pattern with your ex. The more you can avoid fighting, though, the better off your child or children will be. With this in mind, take pains to prevent blowouts with your ex. Attend counseling if needed, and remember that your children are the most important consideration, here.

3. Prepare for Overnight Visitation

All children experience stress with overnight visitations, and kids will benefit from extra support in this area. If your child is going back and forth between your home and your ex’s, make sure you’re providing a safe space for your child to express his or her upset about missing the other parent. The more empathetic you can be to these feelings, the more your relationship with your child will deepen.

4. Stay Aligned With Your Ex

Before you and your ex announce the divorce to your child, come up with a plan. You need to be able to communicate to the child what his or her life will look like going forward. Ideally, you’ll keep the child’s daily schedule as predictable and normal as possible, and have a mutual plan in place for how to answer the questions your child will have about your separation. Alignment with the ex is one of the most important steps in protecting your child emotionally.

5. Reassure the Kids It’s Not Their Fault

Children often feel like it’s their fault their parents got divorced. Reassure them that they are not responsible for the separation and that you both still love them very much. You’ll also need to reinforce that you and your ex-spouse will continue to work together as a family, even when mommy and daddy aren’t living together under the same roof.

You Can Streamline Your Divorce for the Kids

Divorce isn’t easy for anyone in the home. Luckily, you can make it more manageable for your kids by following the tips above. If you need the help of a skilled family law attorney in Pensacola, contact MGM Law, P.A. We take a family-first approach to divorce cases and will go above and beyond to help you keep your family happy and healthy.