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I’m worried about telling my children that we’re getting divorced, they are so little. I don’t know how to explain it to them?
Children and co-parenting
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Advice forum
Replies (3)
It’s natural for you to feel this way -the key messages you need to try and get across: ‘We love you, we’re sorry our decision is causing you distress, it’s not your fault, we will both still continue to look after you, but it will be in different houses because we don’t get on well enough with each other to want to live in the same house together anymore, one family- two households.’
We have created a guide to help parents through this tricky conversation. You can also book in for a coaching session with us if you’d like more support on preparing for the conversation.
We have older kids (17 and 24) – I think their reactions will be quite different. I dont know if I should tell them together or separately?
I recommend you tell them at the same time as they will gain support from each other. Neither will feel excluded or that there are secrets, both will have heard the same thing. Expect you may have to phrase it in different ways for the 17 year old but try and do this at the same time.