The Challenges of Divorce

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Kids watch how parents handle financial stress and form their own ideas about economic stability.

Independence and future planning tend to become more real when children see adults budget and follow a plan.

Parents who worry out loud about money may be inadvertently chipping away at kids' sense of safety at home.

When smart spending and saving habits are modeled early, it can shape children's confidence later in life.

Giving my children the life I never had because nobody taught me about money has made the road to where I am today and where I want to go much harder. As a once-divorced mom of four (now remarried), who was left with not even enough money to buy myself a chai tea after my then-husband emptied our bank accounts, I’ve struggled on many occasions along the way.

But those struggles didn’t come without money lessons, especially in how my relationship with money shaped my children—who were young at the time, but still old enough to pick up on the situation I found myself in. In my work as a family law attorney (I returned to work shortly after the chai tea incident, following time away from my career as a stay-at-home mom), I am not surprised by this at all.

Divorce details vary, but one aspect of them is usually consistent: People’s financial status changes. Of course, there are degrees to these changes, and some situations are more dire than others. Still, money is highly emotional, and how you as parents relate to it informs your children’s........

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