First, you need to understand how school-age children react to divorce. Knowing how school-age children react to divorce will bring you to a better position of knowing best appropriate divorce parenting practices you can do for your child. So, how is school-age children affected by divorce?

School-age children are old enough to understand that they are in pain because of their parents' separation. They are too young, however, to understand or to control their reactions to this pain. They may experience grief, embarrassment, resentment, divided loyalty and intense anger.

Elementary school children begin to understand that divorce means their parents will no longer be married and live together, and that their parents no longer love each other.

Children worries about future. They fear nobody will be there to pick him/her up from school and take care of them. It is common for them to ignore school and friendships.

Children also become aware of their parents as individuals, often fear loss of parents, and feel sadness and anger because of their parents' divorce or separation. Self-blame, depression, and attempts to reunite parents are not uncommon in this age group.

Knowing how school-age children reach to divorce, I'm sure by now ideas flow into your mind on what divorce parenting practices is best appropriate for school-age children. To add up to your list of ideas, here below are some divorce parenting practices that is best for your child.

· Explain what is happening over and over again. Children this age are confused easily. In simple terms, explain where your child will live, with whom, where departing parent will live, and who will provide care when both parents are unavailable.

· Encourage your child to talk about how he/she feels. Be sensitive to children's fears. Let your child know that he or she can openly talk to you about ups and downs of your separation or divorce.

· Read books together about children and divorce. Use books to help your child talk about feelings.

· Answer all questions about changes, and keep lines of communication open. Make sure your child feels like he or she can ask you questions and get answers about why divorce happened and what to expect.

· Plan special time together. Set aside special time to spend with your child but be careful not to make promises you may not be able to keep.

· Repeatedly tell children that they are not responsible for divorce. Children need to be reassured that breakup wasn't their fault.

The next question is what appropriate divorce parenting practices for preschooler really means? Let's keep things simple. All you need to know is learn how divorce affect your children. Knowing how preschoolers react to divorce will bring you to a better position of knowing best appropriate divorce parenting practices you can give for your child.

So let's get started. How is preschoolers affected by divorce? Preschoolers commonly experience regression during parents' divorce. Children whose parents are in conflict regress to thumb-sucking, bed-wetting and other behaviors their parents assume they've outgrown.

Children at this developmental stage may think they are responsible for their parents' divorce or for their parents not living together. As a corollary to perception that their misbehavior caused divorce or caused a separation, preschool children often believe that if they are really good, everything will be okay again. This can be an incredibly stressful perception for a little kid, because he or she begins to carry on his or her shoulders burden of getting mom and dad back together again.

Preschoolers may be confused, have fantasizes about reconciliation, and show difficulties in expressing their feelings. Their sense of security is affected by predictable and consistent routines.

Preschoolers may fear being left alone or abandoned altogether and may worry about changes in their daily lives. They may deny that anything has changed, or they may become uncooperative, depressed, or angry. Although they want security of being near an adult, they may act disobedient and aggressive.

Preschoolers exhibit signs of sadness and grieving because of absence of one parent. Preschoolers may be aggressive and angry toward parent they blame.

Now that you know how preschoolers react to divorce, I'm sure a lot of ideas come to your mind on what divorce parenting practices is best appropriate for preschoolers. To add up to your list of ideas, here below are some of things you should do to help your preschoolers adjust to divorce.

· Repeatedly tell children that they are not responsible for divorce. Children need to be reassured that breakup wasn't their fault.

· Discourage reconciliation fantasies. Avoid dinners, outings, or holiday celebrations with your ex-spouse; they only fuel your child's fantasies. Instead, emphasize finality of divorce

· Keep daily routines intact. Children feel more secure when there is a standard routine. Stick with bedtimes, no matter at which home children are. Have some consistent chores. Have some time committed to child, which is treated as sacred.