Strangely, the best thing you can do to keep a good relationship with your children is to keep a good relationship with your soon-to-be ex-spouse. And that is the thing that people have a hard time doing at the time of the divorce.

Your children are going to love both their parents whether you’re getting divorced or not. And if the children see the two of you fighting all the time, they’re going to pick a side. They’re young. It’s just the way kids are.

So as far as the divorce goes, that is an adult conversation that needs to happen outside the hearing of the children. And then make sure that your children are just not put in the middle. Your children are going to be raised in two different households. Most households before the divorce, mom had a job, dad had a job, and every night everybody was around. Well, now you get into a divorce situation and the children are going to be strictly with mom for periods of time and strictly with dad for periods of time. So everybody has to change what they do. And that’s jarring on the children. But if you keep a good relationship with your spouse, you have good communication with your spouse so that the children, who are very smart, don’t figure out they can play both ends against the middle, you’ll find that children work out their problems in the divorce a lot easier.