Do not abandon all attempts to impose limits on your child. By setting consistent limits, parents can actually help ease a child s adjustment to the separation. When children live with two parents, they are used to having rules and boundaries. When the same structure is kept in place after a separation, children tend to feel more secure, and often less like they are losing their total world. Do not engage in one-upmanship with the other parent.
Some parents try to make up for the divorce by buying their child everything.
In some situations, these gifts are designed to show up the other parent. Usually, children learn quickly how to play the game and play one parent against the other. Most likely, what the child really needs now is attention, love and consistency, not the hottest toy of the season. Do not use kids as pawns. But that is not fair to the child.