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How Children Feel After a Divorce

• Helpless and vulnerable
• The world seems less predictable and reliable
  
• They worry who will take care of them; how will the single parent be able to feed, clothe, shelter, and love them
• They worry about their parents’ health and emotional well-being
• They worry about moving, changing schools, balancing household budgets, and about their parents possibly remarrying
  
• They worry about whether their relationship with the absent parent will end; the more chancy and less frequent the visits, the greater this fear
  
• They feel great sadness
  
• The feel twice rejected; one parent lives out of the house and the at-home parent is deeply involved in working full time, keeping meals on the table, trying to build a new social life and may have little time to invest in the children
  
• They feel guilty about their own role in the separation

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