Please welcome our guest blogger Rosalind Sedacca of Child Centered Divorce. Her timely article on handling the holidays without your children has great information not only for divorced parents but for all who may be feeling alone over the holidays. My favorite of Rosalind's tips is to be in service to others. It is then that you notice how connected, valuable, helpful, special and loved you are!
One
of the saddest consequences of divorce for parents is the alone-time when your
children are visiting their other parent. While short-term periods when the
kids are away can be a welcome respite for an over scheduled single parent, for
other parents the intervals between seeing the children can be long and
lonely. The holiday season can be a
particularly challenging time, especially when friends and neighbors are busy
with their own family gatherings.
It’s
really important for parents who are alone during the winter holidays to get
creative and absorbed in activities that you find personally fulfilling. This
can also be an opportunity to reflect on meeting your own needs and finding
friends and activities that bring joy into your life.
One
of the greatest challenges for divorced parents is avoiding self-pity.
Overwhelmed by a sense of isolation, or feeling undervalued as a parent, can
often result in making poor choices when communicating with your children. It’s
not difficult to bury your hurt in comments designed to make your children feel
guilty about not being with you, despite the fact that most times those
decisions are not really within their control.
Turning
toward your support group of friends can be really helpful when these feelings
arise. Seeking out a counselor or divorce coach can also provide advice and new
resources for creating alternative holiday traditions.
Here
are some other ways you can stay in the lives of your children despite the
distance between you.
- Create a Journal of holiday activities that you can later share with the kids. This might take the form of a travelogue of places you’ve explored, people you’ve visited, movies you saw and other activities participated in. You can even bring home a souvenir from each place as something to show and talk about with the kids on their next visit, such as paper restaurant menus, movie ticket stubs, tee shirts, colorful brochures, post-cards, hats, pens, etc.
- Send an email or text message “of the day” to the kids with a theme: such as the Staying Warm Tip of the Day, favorite Candy Bar of the Day, Sledding Tip of the Day, Favorite Frozen Yogurt Flavor of the Day – just to keep in touch.
- Join a toy or food distribution drive over the holidays to help needy children in your community so you feel valued while interacting with and bringing joy to other children.
- Make plans to see the same movie as your kids on the same day and then schedule a call to discuss the movie together and share the experience in your own way.
Be
creative. Think out of the box in healthy ways and your children will
appreciate you without guilt, sadness or shame. This is one of the greatest
gifts any parent can give to their children – the gift of enjoying their
childhood without the burden of parental divorce issues weighing them down.
Rosalind
Sedacca, CCT, is a Divorce & Parenting Coach, founder of the Child-Centered
Divorce Network and author of How Do I Tell the Kids about the Divorce? A
Create-a-Storybook Guide to Preparing Your Children -- with Love! For her
free ebook on Post-Divorce Parenting, articles, coaching services and other
valuable resources about divorce and parenting, visit http://www.childcentereddivorce.com.
