'What If We Lived In Two Houses?' Talking Kids Through Divorce
Life Kit
NPR
4.5 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2019
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
- Give children as much heads-up as you can — as soon as you've made a definite decision to split up.
- It's a grown-up problem. Don't share details that will confuse your child or hurt your partner.
- Don't fear the big feelings or the "pajama truth-bomb."
- It's good for kids to talk about a separation — even when it may be painful for adults to hear.
- Make sure your kids know that not everything will change.
- Keep routines, and toys, consistent, even if they're traveling from one home to another.
- Look back together on the good memories.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today, the D word. |
| 0:02.0 | Divorce. |
| 0:03.0 | So we were just kind of talking and she was like, well, why don't you just stop fighting? |
| 0:07.0 | I was like, well, like, what if we lived in two houses, but we didn't fight anymore? |
| 0:11.0 | She kind of like sat on it for a moment and then she just started sobbing. |
| 0:21.0 | I'm Corey Turner, an education reporter with NPR and the father of two boys. |
| 0:26.0 | I'm on the cabinet's and education reporter with NPR and the mother of two girls. |
| 0:30.0 | And you're listening to LifeKit for parents with Sesame Workshop. |
| 0:33.0 | In every show, we're going to tackle a tough question we face as parents, caregivers and teachers. |
| 0:39.0 | Like, how do you talk with kids about death or bullying or today, divorce? |
| 0:44.0 | How do you tell kids that their world is about to change forever? |
| 0:49.0 | And then, how do you help them navigate that world? |
| 0:52.0 | We've got some answers and five helpful takeaways when we come back. |
| 1:22.0 | Before the break, we heard from Jada. |
| 1:29.0 | She's a high school science teacher outside San Francisco and the mother of two young girls. |
| 1:41.0 | For privacy reasons, we're not going to use their last name. |
| 1:44.0 | When I interviewed Jada, she and her husband had been divorced about a year and a half. |
| 1:49.0 | And as we're going to hear, since that split, they've had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. |
| 1:54.0 | So this is Sophia, Jada's older daughter, right Corey? |
| 1:57.0 | And you said that she was eight when you first met her? |
| 1:59.0 | That's right, let's take a listen. |
| 2:00.0 | Last year, 2017 was like tragic here. This year was like getting used to it. |
... |
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