Parentline Plus are a charity for parents, and they’re appalled that local authorities aren’t doing enough to help parents who are going through traumatic divorces throughout the UK.

A report titled: “Love your children more than you hate each other: The impact of divorce and separation on families” calls for more help towards parents who are warring with each other during break-ups.

One mother who’s been through divorce told Parentline Plus:

The first two years I spent crying most of the time. It takes a long time to heal and you cannot help but involve the children in the upset.

Parentline Plus used the data from 20,000 calls they’d received between October last year and March this year, with nearly 2,000 of those calls being from parents asking about divorce. More than that number again asked about the impact of divorce upon children, and the behaviour of children caused by the divorce.

Parentline’s Suzie Hayman stated:

There is a real risk that lone mothers and their children could end up with serious financial problems.

It was really clear from our data that parents did not want or mean to cause harm to their children, but that their own emotional state interfered with their ability to do their best for the children.

Parentline seem genuinely interested in how divorce affects children and parents alike. It’s a shame that other government funded bodies, such as CAFCAS or the Child Support Agency, weren’t as caring as they are.

Clive Bellmore