Divorce Mediation Can Be Better for Your Children

If you’re getting divorced, the best gift you can give your children is to create a healthy post-divorce co-parenting relationship with your co-parent. If you can do that, your children will almost certainly do better. The best of intentions may not be enough. It’s well worth the effort to do the work to create structures for smoother long-term co-parenting with your co-parent. Research shows that acrimony between parents has serious negative effects on children. Studies show that children who have exposure to parental conflict (whether or not the parents are divorced) have a significant increased risk of substance use, promiscuity, anxiety, mental and physical health issues, and lower academic achievement. Power struggles, court battles, and adversarial negotiation approaches tend to inflame power struggles and expose children to parental conflict, making it much more difficult for parents to work together as co-parents—with your children paying the price. Divorce Mediation can provide an excellent opportunity to put the conflicts behind you and lay the foundation for good post-divorce co-parenting structures—and a better, healthier, future for you and your children.