Co-Parenting Tips

Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, a child and adolescent psychologist, provides the following tips for co-parenting after divorce (from CBS News):

1. Be respectful: Don’t disparage one another: treat one another with respect and demonstrate positive conflict resolution. Don’t act out your hurt and anger on your children, or talk about your negative feelings toward the other parent around your children. It could promote resentment within your child.

2. Keep the kids out of it: Don’t put the kids in the middle of your arguments and ask them to choose sides. Also, don’t use your children as messengers. This is just too confusing to them and includes them in your relationship issues, which isn’t fair. Figure out how to communicate with one another in a business-like, fair manner.

3. Communicate: Talk about what one another’s needs are to be most effective with your children. Commit to checking in frequently about what is going on with your children, so you can both be involved. Aim for consistency between both parents’ homes.