Divorce is difficult for the whole family.
Take steps to lessen the impact on your
children, writes
Angela Baura
.
J
ill was only six years old when
her mother shocked her with the
news that her father had moved
out. The memories of that fateful
evening still haunt her to this day.
“
My mother told me very briefly
while changing my bed sheets one
night that my father had left. She
couldn’t look at me and just said my
father had moved out because they
didn’t get along anymore. It was a
very short conversation and that’s all
she ever said about it,” recalls Jill, a
Hong Kong-based communications
consultant and mother of two.
When Jill next saw her father, he
too refused to talk about the break-up.
Her feelings of confusion and isolation
were intensified when, shortly after
the divorce was finalised, her mother
moved her across the US, where she
had no relatives or friends. “It was an
incredibly lonely and sad time. My
mother had to work full-time, didn’t
know anyone and couldn’t afford
childcare, so I was not allowed to go
anywhere after school,” she recounts.
Looking back at those difficult
years that lacked the communication
she craved, Jill says, “More
reassurance and empathy from my
parents during their very acrimonious
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