While experts across Tennessee in the United States say that the best environment to raise children in is a stable marriage, divorce is a reality for thousands of couples across the country. If these involve children, then custody becomes a focal point of the divorce process. In the modern age, co-parenting is often seen as the best choice for continuing to raise kids after a divorce. According to Money Crashers, a co-parenting situation is when a couple who is no longer romantically involved are still assuming the same joint responsibility to raise children as they would if they were coupled.
Essentially, co-parenting is the modern equivalent to “staying together for the kids,” just without the “staying together” part. A successful co-parenting relationship requires high-level communication skills and the ability to put the past aside, at least where raising children is concerned. Co-parenting offers a number of psychological benefits for the children. Namely, it allows the children to continue to build solid relationships with both parents despite the divorce. It also helps remove the feeling that children often get when they think that they are responsible for mediating the relationship between their parents. This is because the children will see that the mediation is happening without them.
Another benefit to co-parenting is that it is an excellent example of mature conflict resolution. The child will see that even though his or her parents are no longer married, they can still work together effectively as a team. Having this support is a great way to help children navigate the difficult reality of divorce and come out of the experience as resilient and capable communicators.
