When parents with significant means choose to divorce, this holds the potential to cause great strain on the children in the marriage. Often, this is because high-asset divorces are rarely simple, meaning that the matter may drag out much longer than it might between two parents with fewer issues to resolve in the divorce process. Depending on the nature of the divorce, parents may not realize that they are focusing on dividing up their considerable assets in a favorable way rather than what is truly best for their children.
It is always important to keep your children’s best interests in mind throughout divorce process, not only when considering custody, parenting and child support agreements. While the child’s best interests should certainly be front and center in these issues, parents who lose sight of their responsibilities as parents may not realize how harmful this is to their children.
Putting children’s needs first means more than agreeing to avoid using them as negotiating tools, which is always a bad course of action. It also means taking the time and effort to discuss the matter in a way that children can understand, if they are old enough, and may mean sacrificing some of the parent’s comfort and preferences to keep children’s growing environment stable and secure in a difficult season.
Even in ideal circumstances, divorcing with children is always difficult. If you face this difficult task, do not take your responsibilities as a parent lightly. Carefully planning your divorce so that it meets each spouse’s needs and priorities while protecting the interests and concerns of both the parents and the children in the family is usually a decision that pays emotional and relationship dividends many times over for years to come.
Source: FindLaw, “Divorce: Easing the Strain on Children,” accessed March 30, 2018