The negative feelings that occur during a divorce may have an effect on the children of the dissolving marriage. Tennessee couples should be able to recognize the negative feelings that may arise during divorce in order to avoid making mistakes with their children.
One common negative feeling that people may encounter during divorce is loneliness. They may start leaning on their older kids. Teenagers may be willing to play a more grown-up role, but grieving parents may bombard them with topics or issues that are beyond their emotional level. Instead, parents should find other people to comfort them, such as close friends, family members or therapists. Meanwhile, teenagers should be urged to spend their time on things important to them, such as school, extracurricular activities or their friends. Loneliness can also cause parents to baby younger children. They may hug kids too often, sit bigger kids on their laps and share the bed with their older kids. This type of behavior may confuse younger children and make their emotional development regress.
Another negative feeling that divorcing parents experience is anger at their ex. This may cause them to subtly disparage their ex by commenting on the kids' diet during visitation or rolling their eyes in response to a story about the ex. However, kids can pick up even on subtle criticism. Parents can correct this issue by refusing to talk negatively about their ex in front of their kids. They may also need to avoid talking negatively about their ex to other parents because gossip may get back to the kids.
Tennessee family law attorneys may be able to help parents who are going through divorce. They may be able to advise parents on how to minimize problems during this difficult time.
Source: Huffington Post, "Why Every Divorcing Parent Screws Up (and Why It's OK)", Kate Scharff, August 06, 2013