Parents should approach single parenting with a positive attitude and speak encouragingly about the future. Children need to know that a parent is strong and going to take care of them. Parents should express their love and commitment to the children to help them feel secure. Children's adjustment to divorce depends on how parents handle the divorce. Parents are role models for children and need to set a good example for them.
Children imitate the behaviors and attitudes of their parents.
When parents are able to lay aside their anger and resentment toward the other parent and handle the divorce in a mature and positive way, children benefit and are assisted in making a healthy adjustment to divorce. The greatest gift divorced parents can give their children is to allow them to have a loving, satisfying relationship with both parents and not expose them to continued conflict and hostility. Though divorce has ended a marriage, parenting remains. Children will begin to adjust and heal more readily after the trauma of divorce if cooperative parenting is established. After divorce, one parent usually is responsible for the primary care and maintenance of the children.