It’s always tumultuous for a child when parents divorce, and providing stability is critical. While the Mizbeiach sheds tears, parents can still help their children smile again.
Experts say that keeping each home fully stocked with whatever a child might need — a full wardrobe school supplies reading material toiletries pajamas — reduces the sense of living an unrooted nomadic life (Photos: Eli Cobin)
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Shlomo is his six-year-old self standing in the hallway of his parents’ home. His mother and father each hold one of his arms soundlessly tugging him in opposite directions. He feels himself split in two.
The dream was so vivid that today almost 30 years later with only the slightest bit of imagination Shlomo — now married with young children of his own — is back in the terror of that hallway scene. No need for Freud here with the symbolism so glaringly obvious. This is exactly how it feels says Shlomo to be a child at the center of a custody battle.
“My friends who were at the center of nasty custody fights are cynical closed-off people who’ve lost respect for both their parents ” says Dalya whose parents divorced when she was 12. “They’re scarred on a deep psychological level. Other kids of divorce I know whose parents managed to get along have happy stable lives.”
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