What Do Kids Want When Their Parent’s Get Divorced?

Estimated Reading Time: 1 min read

When parents get divorced, kids don’t count the days or hours in the custody schedule. Instead, they often worry about all of kinds of things most adults never even consider. For example:

Who will kiss my pet turtle goodnight when I am at Dad’s house?
How will Santa know where I am sleeping on Christmas?
Can I paint my new bedroom any color I want?

Once your children have their “logistical and technical” questions answered, what they really want, when their parents get divorced, is this:

Kids want to feel unconditional love from both parents.

Is Shared Custody Best for My Child?

Estimated Reading Time: 7min 59sec

When making custody determinations, judges and child experts usually prefer a shared parenting arrangement over a sole parenting arrangement. "Two is better than one", is the prevailing philosophy. Whether you agree that this is best for your child or not, you need to be ready for the key players and decision-makers in your divorce (the judge, expert witnesses, and your spouse's attorney) to be leaning toward this type of arrangement.

6 Positive Impacts of Divorce on Children

Estimated Reading Time: 3min 7sec

Your divorce may impact your children in a variety of ways. That impact depends on your children's emotional make-up and their previous experiences.

Equally important is and how the people around your children -- especially you and the other parent -- react to the divorce and provide comfort and support to your children through this turbulent time.

When Divorce Forces the Stay at Home Mom to Choose Daycare

Estimated Reading Time: 3 min 13 sec

There has been a great deal of research demonstrating that high quality daycare is beneficial to children's emotional and intellectual development.

1. Language and cognitive development: Studies have found that children in higher quality childcare tend to have better language and cognitive development during the first 4.5 years.

Drafting Divorce Settlement Agreements with Teenagers in Mind

Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes 20 seconds

It Happens Fast
When you are negotiating the custody & visitation portion of your Divorce Settlement Agreement, you will need to keep teenagers in mind, even if your children are still very young.  As any parent of a teenager will tell you, your kids will become young adults before you know it.

Children in Divorce: What Experts Say You Can Teach Your Children

2 min 50 sec read
If you model good communication with your spouse during a divorce, it can be a helpful lesson to your children. It will help them learn how to handle life's conflicts in the long run. Children in divorce do much better and are more secure when they feel their parents are managing "grown-up" life issues in a "grown-up" way.

6 Methods to Effectively Co-Parent After a Nasty Divorce

Every divorcing parent has heard the same thing: You have to learn to get along with your ex… for the sake of the kids. Of course, that’s easy for them to say. They don’t have to deal with your crazy/spiteful/narcissistic ex.

In these days of shared child custody, also known as co-parenting, parents often end up having to communicate more about their kids after divorce than they ever did while they were married.

Child Support Income Determinations – Virginia Divorce

For purposes of calculating Child Support in a Virginia divorce, gross income is what is used (not net, not AGI, nor anything else). The term “gross income” is very broadly interpreted. It includes, but is not limited to:

Salaries
Wages
Commissions
Royalties
Bonuses
Dividends
Severance Pay
Pensions
Interest
Trust Income
Annuities
Capital Gains
Social Security Benefits (can be complicated)
Workers Compensation Benefits
Unemployment Insurance Benefits
Disability Insurance Benefits (can be complicated)
Veterans Benefits
Spousal Support received
Rental Income
Gifts
Prizes
Awards

Gross income does NOT include:

Benefits from most Public Assistance programs
SSI benefits
Child Support received
Income received by payor for secondary employment where that income is being obtained specifically to discharge a child support arrearage established by a court or administrative order and the payor is actually paying that arrearage.