Setting and enforcing limits also helps give children of divorce a sense of security. That's because children of divorce often feel overwhelmed by their worries, fears and concerns, which are being translated into acting-out behavior. Helping children bring their acting-out behavior under control gives them a sense that their negative feelings are being brought under control, as well. Finally, divorced parents need to spend time engaged in enjoyable activities with their child. Divorced parents also need to provide lots of positive reinforcement when their child does behave appropriately.
Divorce is almost always difficult for children.
The fact that they are still children means they will have difficulty verbalizing their feelings about the divorce. Instead, they often translate those feelings into misbehavior. Divorced parents need to anticipate this and work hard to provide structure, predictability, limits and positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior. Co-parenting is hard work. It takes time to develop and put in place a co-parenting plan.