Your Parenting Plan: 7 Ways to Make Your Divorce Easier for Your Kid — Straight From Teens Who Lived It

Article featured in SheKnows.com

When parents divorce, kids don’t get a say in the decision — even though they definitely have something to say about it afterward. We asked teens whose parents split up to share the things that made it easier, the things that made it harder, and the moments that stuck with them. Their insights are part therapy, part PSA, and 100 percent worth reading. Here are seven valuable lessons for any parent navigating divorce.

Offer Your Kids Therapy

Many teens said that the most helpful thing their parents did was to get them into therapy — and then back off. It gave them a safe space to explore their feelings without having to protect anyone else’s. “Therapy has been everything for me because it is a way I can talk about the divorce without actually talking with my parents,” says Hayden, 17, who was 6 during her parents’ divorce. Nineteen-year-old Demie, who was 6 when her parents got divorced, emphasized that real support kicked in only “once I expressed my needs.” Lucas, 18, who was 10 when his parents divorced, described therapy as “the one hour a week where I could say anything out loud without worrying...