What can I do to protect my children while Im divorcing?
Preparing Children for Divorce by Marsha L. Shelov, Ph. D. and Maria Alba-Fish, Ph. D. For the past 10 years, we have been working with parents to help their children through divorce. Divorce is a psychologically disorganizing experience for families. Parents themselves often feel bereft, powerless and angry. The adults often need validation and support to reorganize their own lives to enable them to parent their children. During and following the divorce children need their parents to distinguish between the parenting relationship and the marital relationship. The marital relationship is ending, but the parenting relationship continues. The needs of children in a divorce are different in at least one important way from the needs of each parent. While parents may be antagonistic and yearn to have nothing to do with each other, it is better for the youngsters if both parents can collaborate in parenting their children. The following guidelines are based on our clinical work and the prof
