Articles Tagged with custody

Divorce is never easy, especially when children are involved. In the state of New Jersey, parents who are going through a divorce are required to participate in a Parent Education Program or PEP. The PEP is a requirement for all parents who are seeking a divorce in the state of New Jersey, regardless of whether they have children or not.

Assist Parents to Understand the Impact of Divorce

The purpose of the PEP is to help parents understand the wide-ranging impact of marriage dissolution on children, and to provide them with the tools they need to help their children through the process. The program aims to educate parents about the impact of divorce on the emotional and psychological well-being of their children, and how they can decrease the possibility for negative implications of divorce on their children.

PEP is Education and Not Counseling

PEP is not a counseling session, but rather an educational program. The program is designed to be informative and practical, with a focus on providing parents with the tools they need to help their children through the process of divorce. Continue Reading →

It is almost a cliché to state that divorce is hard on children. The reason it is something of a cliché is because divorce and children is a challenging mix. There are specific ways in which parents can help their children maneuver successfully through the divorce process. There are five key strategies that parents can use as a means to support kids during the marriage dissolution process:

• Maintain daily routines
• Communicate with children in an age-appropriate manner
• Appropriately reassure the kids
• Keep children abreast of custody and parenting time issues
• Listen to your kids

Maintain Daily Routines

A key strategy to employ to support your children during a divorce is to maintain preexisting daily routines whenever possible. The mere fact that you and your spouse are divorcing already serves to upend many elements of your family life. You provide an added level of stability to the lives of your children by maintaining some of the basic routines that you enjoyed before your New Jersey marriage dissolution started. Examples of daily routines include such simple things like:

• Nightly dinner time
• Attend religious services
• Participating in afterschool activities
• Other traditional family rituals and activities

Communicate with Children in an Age-Appropriate Manner

Regular and reliable communication between parent and child is always a must. Open, honest, regular communication becomes even more important when parents are divorcing.

When it comes to divorce and children, you need to make sure lines of communication remain open with your kids. A key element of divorce and children communication is to make sure that you speak with your kids using age-appropriate language. Depending on the age of your children, they will have different understandings of your divorce. Indeed, age and maturity level more generally dictate the manner in which your kids receive and process information. Continue Reading →