Illinois parents whose marriages are ending may not have the greatest trust in each other to begin with, and the divorce process can further exacerbate these issues. However, people who are planning to co-parent will have to work on trusting each other again, to an extent. For the sake of the children, people should try not to assume that their ex-spouse is always acting with bad intentions.
Children of divorced parents can adapt to their new circumstances and grow to be well-adjusted adults as long as their parents put in the effort to create a healthy environment. Despite the bad feelings that parents may have for each other, it is in the child’s best interest for them to put these feelings aside when the child is present. Parents who vent to their child about their ex-spouse or uses their child to deliver negative messages to their ex-spouse is hurting their child’s emotional well-being.
Though a parent may have dozens of stories to prove that their ex-spouse is a bad person, developing healthy communication is in the child’s best interest. Research has shown that children of divorced parents develop better self-esteem when their parents share custody. Divorced parents must respect the bond that their child has with the other parent and the child’s need to stay attached to the other parent.
One of the things that can help a divorced parent to navigate a successful co-parenting arrangement is a written parenting plan. A family law attorney can often be of assistance in this regard, and suggest that the plan itself contain provisions about how to deal with conflicts that might arise in the future.