The Group Hug
The holidays can be both a joy and a challenge for parents. It’s great to leave the routine of the morning and afternoon school run, preparing lunches, ironing the uniform and having more time in the lighter evenings with the kids.
However, it can be challenging to organise child care if you are a working parent, and if you’ve not been getting on well with your partner, this time of year can be particularly difficult with tensions escalating at home.
Holidays can lead to thoughts about separation
Co-parenting is never completely straightforward even if you are living together and content in a relationship. However, if your partner isn’t meeting your needs, the holidays ending and the kids going back to school can give you an opportunity to make those important decisions about the future, for not just you, but also your children.
Speak anonymously to others about what you are going through in the Hug Forum
It’s really important to find out about the choices you have if you have decided to separate. Even if you haven’t made that decision and just want to know what might happen if you did, you need clear legal advice. As a start, you need to know about the differences between solicitor led negotiation, collaboration, mediation, arbitration and going to court. This will enable you to make an informed choice of which process to begin with and what feels right for you and your family. Our family lawyers will advise you on all of these options.
Support, help and advice
You will need emotional support. Couples rarely come to terms with separation at the same pace and one of you is likely to be further down that road than the other. Separating brings inevitable stresses and here at Scullion LAW we have a support network of life coaches and family therapists that can be on hand to help.
How will divorce affect my children?
Getting to grips with the finances when you separate is really important. It’s not uncommon for one of you to be more financially clued up than the other and we also have a network of financial advisors, financial planners and financial coaches who can help you navigate this.
The final summer holiday I had with my children and then husband was a pivotal point for me. I knew things weren’t right. I’d discovered lots of things and had some real “lightbulb moments”. I went on to have a further holiday time as a family at Christmas, and after that, for me, that was when I really knew I had to change things. It took me a further 5 months to get brave, and in the May, I started divorce proceedings.
Alison – Founder of The Group Hug
What to do next
So far as legal advice is concerned, we want you to make positive choices with as clear a head as you can and as focused as much as you can on the future you want to create. No one family is the same, and each of you within the family is an individual. The terms of your separation, the care arrangements for your children and the financial aspects should be bespoke to your needs. We will guide you through the possibilities to resolve these and be clear with you about what can be achieved.
Find out more about starting again
The children
Remember it’s not separation that damages children, it’s conflict. The future as a separated parent will look different. Not worse. Just different. We provide advice to minimise the effect of the separation on your children and advise you on the law as it applies to your circumstances all-year-round, not just after the holidays.
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