Divorce and Separation

Parenting Challenges during Marital Separations

By Dr. Kalman Heller, Child and Family Psychologist One of the Hardest Moments in a Family’s Life This is one of the most painful moments in the life of a family. The parents sit down with their kids and try to explain why one of them is moving out. Divorce may be about the end of a marriage, but once children are involved, it’s really about the breakup of a family. One spouse often feels like the victim in all this, but the children are always victims of the process. They expect their parents to stay together and take care

The Impact of Divorce on Children

By Dr. Kalman Heller, Child and Family Psychologist Why This Column Talks About Marriage I like to remind readers now and then why a parenting column spends so much time on marriage. It’s because no single factor has a bigger impact on the health of every member of a family. Parents locked in ongoing marital conflict expose their kids to chronic tension, sometimes an outright abusive environment, constant sabotage of each other’s parenting, and direct involvement of the children in the fighting itself. Research consistently shows that both children and parents develop real emotional and physical symptoms living inside that