Co-Parenting Over Christmas - In Search of Some Sanity

 

Photo credit: TLC.com

For some divorced or separated parents, arranging and organizing equal time with the children has been an easy and smooth ride while for others, and you know who you are, it has been and is still is proving to be an experience straight out of hell for various reasons.

If you are having trouble with co-parenting over the holidays, here are some tips for you:

• Instead of focusing on the time that the children will be away from you, focus instead on how you will be spending your time with them. Then make sure you have plans and some fun during the time you don't have the children. Don't make them choose which parent they want to be with and when - you are the adults here, sort it out for them.

• Choose not to fight in front of them. And I use the word "choose" because at the end of the day, that is what we do. Yes, this might be easier said than done but definitely, definitely not impossible. If you feel an argument brewing, catch yourself in time to make the decision not to rise to it. I promise you, with practice it becomes easier and easier and the fights become less and less and the little ones happier and happier and more secure and...you get the picture.

• If this is your first Christmas as a divorced or separated parent, then why not start your own family tradition that suits you and the children? Have your children help create the ceremony. You don't have to do things as you have always done them. New journey, new chapter and all that, so do what makes you all happy.

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