Parenting Apart in Lockdown: A Podcast

In this podcast FLiP director Elizabeth Fletcher teams up with The Parent Practice to discuss relationship struggles during lockdown. Together they look at how to help children deal with the breakdown of a relationship, whether that is something that has already happened or is imminent.

Listen to this podcast episode if your relationship has reached the end of the road or if you have already separated or divorced from your partner and you want to learn:

How to manage the stress of relationship breakdown when it is compounded by the restrictions of lockdown and possibly being still under the same roof as your estranged partner;

How to manage communication with your partner. Top tip: verbal communication is often more nuanced than the written word;

What to do if there is physical or other abuse in a relationship, especially if you are living with an abusive partner (for information about reporting abuse click here);

What help to get if you are subject to coercive control by a partner;

What remedies are available under the legal system and through other support agencies to help with these situations;

About 7 ways to support your children through the trauma of family break up:

• Understand and get support for your own emotional needs;
• Understand your children’s needs and reactions at different stages of development;
• Empathise and provide a safe space for children to express their emotions;
• Reassure the children that the end of the relationship was nothing to do with them and that neither parent will ever stop loving them;
• Support the children to have a positive relationship with both parents;
• Provide the children with many messages that they are valued;
• Provide safety and support at home

About the basic rules for contact during lockdown, and what happens if these rules are infringed;

How mediation can help (even during lockdown) when parents are having trouble communicating and finding solutions to parenting arrangements;

What to do when communication is really problematic and how to make use of technologies like Our Family Wizard ;

How to manage differing points of view about how to deal with the lifting of restrictions;

What the rules are on moving with a child or taking a child out of jurisdiction and what recourse parents have if they disagree with their partner’s position on travel.