Oftentimes parents and adolescents have a difficult time listening to each other. This becomes a serious issue when the parents are separated/divorced and the young person may be caught between the parents’ inability to communicate and the child’s inability to adjust to changes in lifestyle, friends, and schools. The transition may be overwhelming to a child who is trying to find its own identity.
Instead of running to the courthouse to file a modification of the divorce decree I suggest scheduling a parent-adolescent mediation. This will go a long way to minimize the conflict. With the assistance of a third party neutral the parents and child assess the conflict, participate in creative problem solving and reach a resolution.
In the meantime below is an article that offers practical tidbits in co-parenting. Although co-parenting is challenging, it’s also rewarding when the parents’ foremost concern is the best interest of the child. The article “Divorce Diaries: 2014 Co-Parenting New Year’s Resolutions” was published in Psychology Today on December 29, 2013:
