Many young children have to split their time between parents during the holiday season. Although the prospect of having two Christmases sounds great to some, it is an exhausting and emotional ordeal to most who experience it.
Children of broken families tend to feel as if they are intruders in their own homes, according to an article published by Sir Paul Coleridge for the Daily Mail. This is because Christmas time sees them interacting with one side of their family before being unceremoniously jettisoned into their "second Christmas" with the other half of it.
When he stepped down last year after 43 years of working in the family justice system, Sir Paul Coleridge has already seen his fair share of messy divorces. Children may think that having two Christmases seems fun because they will receive gifts from mom and gifts from dad, instead of just gifts from mom and dad. However, this just is not worth getting dragged into fights between parents day in and day out.
According to Coleridge's article, one of the most difficult cases he has encountered was one wherein "both parents refused to agree whose responsibility it was to ferry the children from one place to the other on Christmas Day." The sad reality is that this may make the child feel even more unwanted than he or she already does. The parents eventually settled this by meeting halfway.
No child is 100% safeguarded from having to see their parents going at war against one another. It does not matter if you live in abject poverty or if you are a multimillionaire. If you are going through a separation during this time of the year, it will definitely take a considerable toll on your child.
Divorce Help for Parents and Divorce Care have resources to help manage the holiday season as a divorced parent. One of the best pieces of advice these websites have to offer is to "Focus on your time with your children instead of the time you aren't going to be together."
