Psychological and Legal Impacts: 5 Ways Divorce Affects Children
By Kath / August 28, 2018 / No Comments / Home, Parenting
Divorce has become a significant social problem owing to its alarmingly increased rate in the recent years. And you feel you’re close to joining this category. Maybe you’ve been experiencing constant family fights with your partner. Or maybe it’s got to do with lifestyle issues. Whatever the reason behind, you feel you cannot bear it anymore, you want a divorce. After all, it’s legal, right? So long as you enlist the help of a divorce lawyer like Peters May (http://petersmay.com/), it should limit any negative effects while staying above board. But have you thought about what impacts this will have on the kids? Here are five ways this will affect the children.
Economic loss
Looking after the children on your own is a bit more straining in terms of finances. The children will be forced to forego some recreation and goodies due to the single income all of a sudden. This will even be worse if, during the divorce, one partner is left with insufficient resources to look after the kids. You’re more likely to be emotionally disturbed during the divorce process. Having an experienced divorce law attorney will help you make informed decisions on how you’re going to agree on the resource sharing.
Loss of a parent
In the case of a divorce, the child is bound to experience a loss of contact with one of the parents, perhaps due to legal practice. This is not a good thing for the child’s development. The kids will from time to time feel lonely and may affect their ability to socialize with other children. Since they may not understand the circumstances, they may think that the other parent doesn’t love them. The behavior of the child could also be at risk due to lack of proper guidance from both parents.
Stress
Children have a different way of handling stress than adults. So many scary questions flood the mind of the child. Who will take care of me? Will they stop loving me? What if my step-parent and step-siblings will not love me? The children experience changes in the day-to-day life such as change of home, child care, and even schools. Then they realize they’re no longer in the company of their friends. And they have to adapt to the relationship with new strangers. This brings about a more stressful environment for the kids.
Poor sport and academic performance
Having to raise the kids on your own will mean that you will have to work for more hours to support the family. The children will then have little or no attention. You will not be there to supervise and check if they complete their homework on a daily basis. Who will guide them realize their academic strengths if no parent is around for them? What about their potential in sport? Perhaps they need to have access to sporting kits and related accessories. The result will be poor performance both in school and sport.
Low self-esteem
Divorce comes as a blow to the children’s confidence and self-esteem. Some may tend to blame themselves for your differences. Why? Because they’re fond of connecting their own identities to the world around them. The home which they used to get their sense of security is no longer there and they’re too small to understand the circumstances. Even to their adulthood, they will live to have lower expectations of the surrounding world. Living with one parent could also lead to low esteem as they may not get enough attention from them.
Conclusion
Every child deserves parental care from both parents. Separating the children from either parent has adverse effects on their development. It affects their ability to socialize with new friends and family and this goes all the way to affect their performance in school and in sports. Depending on a single income will mean the children will have to miss on some necessities and recreational facilities. Divorce brings stress to the children and can affect their normal development. Their nature of relating everything around them will lower their self-esteem and will impact their future relationships. So before giving the divorce option a greenlight, first think of the effects this will have on the children.