How to help your children feel they belong after separation.

Belonging in a Separated Family: Helping Children Feel “This Is My Place” in Two Homes

It’s Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week, and this year’s theme, “This is My Place’’ is about the importance of belonging. Children deserve to feel that they belong. They need to feel connected and valued in a safe place where they can be happy,  relaxed and have the freedom to be themselves.   

Feeling ‘This is my Place’ is never more important than when parents separate, and children transition and adjust to life between two homes. Knowing that change can feel unsettling and stressful, what can parents and caregivers do to help children feel secure and that they belong?

Getting curious about how each of our children experiences family separation is a great start. We can ask ourselves: how does all the adjustment and change feel to my unique child, given their temperament and at their age or stage of development? Curiosity is a parenting superpower.  

It’s reassuring to remember that children don’t need us to be perfect and that everything doesn’t need to be the same in both homes.  It’s wonderful and helpful if you and your co-parent can work together so your homes reflect your co-parenting values.  It’s consistency, predictability and reliability that are most important to our children.

Children of divorce can thrive when parents work together to understand their children's needs and do their best to help them feel safe, seen, and understood while embracing all their emotions.  Belonging is about feeling valued, included and respected, and it’s our responsibility to keep things as calm and cooperative as possible in our relationship with our co-parent – not perfect, but good enough and always child-focused.

When belonging feels wobbly after separation

Separation brings change, and change can feel hard for children. Each child experiences and learns to manage change in their own unique way. You may have a son who is temperamentally flexible, and change doesn’t faze him quite so much, but for your daughter, who thrives on predictability and regularity, all this change feels very hard.

Our children often show how they’re coping through their behaviour – they might become clingier, withdrawn, or they disengage at school. Others might try very hard to be “good” or keep everyone happy.

These reactions are understandable. Often, they’re a child’s way of asking a quiet question: “Am I still okay here? Do I still belong?”

Gentle ways to support a sense of belonging across two homes

1.   Let children know they don’t have to choose

Children worry about loyalty — about enjoying time in one home and hurting their other parent. They may decide to keep these worries to themselves.

Simple, repeated reassurance helps:

●     ‘You belong here, and you belong with Mum too.’

●     ‘It’s okay to feel at home in both places.’

●     ‘I love hearing about what you get up to’

●     ‘Have a great time with Dad this week.’

Hearing this regularly helps children relax, adapt to the change and settle into their homes.

2.   Create familiar rituals in your own home

Your home doesn’t need to run the same way as the other parent’s. Your home reflects you and your values. What matters is that your child knows what to expect when they’re with you.

This might be:

●     A familiar transition ritual when you’re back together

●     A predictable mealtime or bedtime routine

●     Respectful rules and boundaries in a place where real life happens. 

Small, repeated moments of connection help your child feel grounded and safe — feeling safe and secure is the foundation of belonging.

3.   Talk about family in a way that includes both homes

Children need help making sense of their family story after separation. The words we use and the stories we tell are important in helping them feel connected.

Try language that keeps things whole:

●     ‘You have a home here and a home at Dad’s’

●     ‘We both love you and look after you in our own ways.’

●     ‘This is just part of how our family works now.’

This reassures children that their family hasn’t disappeared — it’s just changed shape. A six-year-old boy might say when he’s asked to talk about his family – ‘I have a home with my dad and my cat Fred and a home with my Mum and Ian and my sisters and our dog Angus.’

4. Make space for feelings, especially around changeovers

Moving between homes can bring up lots of feelings, even when things are generally going well. Children always need to know that all feelings are welcome, even when behaviour needs some guidance.

You might notice:

●     Sadness before or after transitions

●     Irritability or emotional outbursts

●     Quiet withdrawal

Naming and accepting these feelings, without rushing to fix them, helps children feel understood and safe to be themselves.

●     ‘It’s ok to feel sad about saying goodbye’

●     'I know you miss Mummy when you’re here, and you miss being here when you’re with Mummy. That’s normal.

• ' I can see you're really frustrated.  It's hard to keep track of all your things when you move between two homes and all your activities. Let's think about what we can do to help make this a bit easier. '

5.   Come back together after tricky moments

It’s important to repair whenever there’s a rupture, as it shows children that relationships can bend without breaking, and that mistakes don’t mean that there’s less love. When we repair, children learn emotional safety, trust, and over time, how to repair their own relationships. Perhaps a transition is rushed and less than perfect, or perhaps you slip in a derogatory comment about your co-parent to your child. We all make mistakes, and we can take responsibility for that part of us that slipped up.

Repair can be simple:

●     'That felt hard earlier.'

●     'I’m sorry I snapped — Part of me was feeling overwhelmed this morning.'

●     'We’re okay. I love you.'

This teaches children that relationships — and their place in them — are solid and secure, even when things go wrong.

The message children need to hear underneath it all

In separated families, belonging grows when children experience over and over through our words and our actions:

‘This is your home. You are welcome here.'
'You’re loved in both places.'
'You don’t have to earn your place - it’s already yours.'

Belonging isn’t created through big gestures or perfect co-parenting. It grows in the everyday moments — in how children are greeted, listened to, reassured, and reconnected with.

When children feel emotionally safe in each home, they carry that sense of belonging with them wherever they go, knowing that even though family life looks different now, their place within it is secure.