Having Two Homes When Your Parents Split Up

Posted by familylaw on 21st December 2011

After your parent’s divorce you may live in two homes. Sometimes this means you live in one home most of the time and have another home where you visit and stay over with the other parent. It can also mean you live half of the time with one parent and half with the other.

This can be confusing at first and all the changes will take a bit of getting used to. There are a few things you can do to make life easier:

• If one of your parents is moving to a new area ask them to show you around before you move in – this will help you get a bit more used to things.
• Decorate your new room with things you like. Put up pictures and photographs of friends and family and make sure it’s a nice place to be.
• If you are keeping your old room for half the week you might want to redecorate this too for a fresh start.
• Sit down with your mum and dad and decide what the rules are going to be at each house. They don’t need to be the same for both parents but you all need to know where you stand.
• Ask your parents to buy two sets of the important things like toothbrushes, underwear, hairbrushes, and toiletries.
• Sit down with a calendar and work out with your parents which days you will be at which house (don’t forget to include school holidays, birthdays, Christmas etc.)

“At first I felt really sad when it was time to go to dad’s for the other half of the week but he bought me food I really liked and he’s got really into playing my computer games with me after tea. Now I look forward to it.” Ben 13.

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