Family Separation
Staying in touch
Lots of things can happen when parents separate. For some kids, both their parents still spend lots of time with them, but this is not always the case. Sometimes one parent might move a long way away, so it's difficult to spend as much time with them as before. If this is the case for you, there are still lots of ways to stay in touch, for example you might like to:
- talk on the phone or on Skype
- write letters or emails
- send photos and drawings
Can you think of some other ways that you might keep in touch with a parent who is a long way away?
In some families, kids stay with one parent and the other parent isn't really interested in spending time with them anymore. That can be really hard to deal with and can make kids feel sad and angry. It can also mean that staying in touch will be difficult or won't happen at all.
It's important to remember, that even if your parent decides that they don't want to stay in touch, it doesn't necessarily mean that their family doesn't want to hear from you or see you. So although you don't see your mum or dad, you will still get to see your grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins on their side of the family.
If this is happening to you, who could you talk with to find ways of staying in touch with your family or talking about how you feel?