It hardly seems possible, but the school year will be starting soon. If your divorce was finalized over the summer, your child could find themselves struggling to make their way at an unfamiliar school missing all their favorite friendly faces.
What’s a divorced parent to do?
Keep the lines of communication open
No matter your child’s age, they need to know that they can always turn to you for the straight truth on every topic. While that doesn’t mean sharing with your child each tawdry detail of your divorce, it does mean remaining open to listening one more time to how all these changes are negatively affecting their life.
Find the silver lining
You might feel like you have to dig pretty deep to find at least one positive aspect about their new school that will appeal to your child. Maybe they have a terrific Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) program or their Art department is stellar. Whatever nugget you find, make sure your son or daughter has at least one thing to look forward to when starting the year at a new school.
Focus on ways to stay connected
When a divorce involves a move, your children may be devastated at no longer seeing their friends, relatives and even their other parent. With all the technology available today, show them all the different ways that they can maintain these important relationships. Facetiming, Zoom sessions for homework help, SMS text messages and even the good old USPS are all ways they can keep in contact with those who are important to them.
Remember, too, that custody plans are not set in stone. While you must respect the terms of any orders in place, custody modifications occur all the time in the family law courts. Let your child know that you can always revisit any unworkable terms at a future date.