Support for older children when parents divorce

Perhaps 10% of divorcing couples become stuck over arrangements for their minor children often moving towards mediation or the increasingly over-stretched courts to find their solutions. Specialist family lawyers can sign-post other less-conflicted couples towards organisations that will help them to steer their children safely through the divorce or separation.

The challenges for older children

But what happens if the children are older? The growth of the grey divorce or silver separation has given rise to a sharp increase in the numbers of young adults seeing their parents separate. Embedded into 1970s culture was 'staying together for the sake of the kids'. This in turn spawned the idea that adult children would somehow manage the divorce or separation of their parents better. The experience at Family Law in Partnership is however quite different:

• Older children are often faced with a bewildering challenge to their identity when their parents split up. Assuming that they were part of a ‘rock-solid’ intact family they are thrust into a place where they need to reappraise themselves re-think their future – and perhaps their past too: 'At what point did  my parents’ partnership actually end?'

• Some...

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