It’s tough enough to raise small kids when your family is intact. But if your wife or husband recently left you, or if you instigated a split, for whatever reason, you now must confront a two-headed challenge. One the one hand, you must continue to raise your children. On the other hand, you also need to finalize the divorce or separation.
Both challenges are monumental and multifaceted. Taken together, the challenges almost have a multiplicative effect. In other words, you are not just contending with sum of your problems – you face entirely novel problems.
Let’s talk about one of the most elemental of these issues: the challenge of time.
It’s axiomatic that raising small kids will consume a lot of your free (some of your not so free!) time. Likewise, when you go through divorce, the process of preparing for, negotiating and litigating a divorce can also consume vast amounts of time.
Unlike other resources, your time is limited. But if both of these huge projects consume massive amounts of time, how on earth can you manage? After all, there are only 24 hours in a day, and you need to sleep, eat, and take basic care of yourself.
Another great challenge is money. Raising kids can be incredibly expensive, even if you’re not sending them to private schools or investing in big birthday parties, replete with bounce houses.
Raising kids and going through a divorce can also stress you psychologically. How can you manage the stressors coming at you?
Lastly, you might wonder about the “end state” for your divorce? How will this end, ideally? What should your goals be?
We will explore all four challenges in upcoming blog posts. For now, call the Dinnebier & Demmerle team to schedule a consultation with our divorce and child custody attorneys.