Notes from Divorce Education Class

Or one main note I should say. Awhile ago I attended a class that is mandated by law for all divorcing parents to take before their divorce can be finalized. The first part was more for people who were maybe not sure they really were going to get divorced and for people who weren't using an attorney. The next part had lots of good advice to help children cope with the divorce. The one piece of information that really stuck out to me was this:

Children consider themselves to be half of their mother and half of their father. They cannot separate themselves from their parents. If they think that one of their parents is 'bad', then they will think that they are half 'bad'. So, of course the advice that followed was to never say bad things about the other parent.

EDIT: And I would also add that we shouldn't put ourselves down either since that can also negatively affect the self esteem of our children.

I think this advice is also very applicable to married parents as well.

Anyway, I was thinking about this, and for Sydney's birthday I got her a locket with a picture of her mom and dad in it.

She loves it.