Telling children parents are separating and living separately

[Hamish09]

Just looking for some advice.

My wife and I have amicably split, and I am moving in to a flat in the next few weeks.

We are really worried about telling the kids (they are 2 and almost 5).

We really dont know what to say to them about the breakup.

How do you explain that both parents will no longer be living together and that they wont see both of us all the time?

How do you explain to them they will be living in different homes during the week?

I don't have any helpful answers but bumping this for you as it's important

Hi OP,
Well done for keeping the children’s emotions at the forefront of your mind - not always easy to do during a split!
There’s a book called ‘Two Homes’, you can watch it being read on YouTube before you buy to see if it would be suited to your children but a lot of people recommended it to me when I split with my husband (my son is also 5). It’s a nice positive way to portray living in two different homes with mum and dad seperately. I would just try to keep details basic as to not overwhelm, but answer any questions that might come honestly. Maybe find them nice bags so that they can enjoy packing overnight things etc? Makes it more of an adventure at their age.
Good luck, I found I really tortured myself over this conversation for my DS to then totally take it in his stride x

My two took it really well also

We explained that mum and dad still love each other but didn't want to live together any more. So we were going to have two houses, they'd get two bedrooms, two TVs, dad might get a cat etc

And they can choose how to decorate their new rooms and see dad any time they want. And in the hols they can go stay with dad for a week if they want. (He was moving to a big town - far more exciting than our wee hamlet!)

Hope it goes well op