Dating For Single Parents

7 Tips on How Divorced or Separated Parents Can Make This Holiday Season Less Stressful to Thrive After Divorce

Divorced parents struggle over the holidays to make the season joyous and exciting for their children.

1. Talk to your ex before an event to talk through plans, so you can diminish the enormous pressure children can come under when their parents’ relationship changes.

2. Work out dates, times and transportation schedules then share them with your children, after the decisions have been made. Make the schedule between adults, don’t put the children in the middle of this negotiation or make them choose.

3. Children are more confident when they have a routine and maintaining some of the holiday traditions can be a way of bridging the past and future.

4. Get Real. Be realistic in your expectations – handmade gifts, homemade holiday cards and simple dinners. Pick traditions that are most important to you, create new ones.

5. Holidays can trigger feelings of grief, loss, and remorse – regardless of who ended the situation. Thoughts of “Shouldn’t be like this”. Let your feelings out instead of bottling them up – journal, talk with a friend, and ask for support. (eg. I’ll be needing a dinner invitation).

6. Give your children the gift of being able to love and enjoy both parents. Children do better if there’s cooperation between parents and some continued relationships with extended family so holidays are a great time to foster this.

7. Continue to enforce limits, rules – children need a stable and predictable environment.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2006, 15.9% of all families were single parent households. Nearly one in two divorces in Canada involve children.

Originally posted 2009-12-12 09:41:11. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Tags: After, Divorce, divorced, Holiday, Less, parents, Season, Separated, Stressful, This, Thrive, tips