3 Tips for Surviving Fall Break with Divorced Parents

We all know the basic statistic that around 50% of United States marriages end in divorce. And if you are like me, then that means that your mom and your dad aren’t together anymore either. When thinking about Fall Break, if you have divorced parents, two strong feelings come to mind. The first one is obvious. Excitement!!! We have been busting our butts off for some time, and we are all just ready for some relaxation and stress free time. The second one… if you’re like me… is either a mixture of dread or you begin to feel this immense weight on your shoulders. You are only going to be home for about 4 days and both of your parents are going to want to spend some time with you. As a Junior, I have had to deal with this for 2 years now, so below are 3 tips that I have learned along the way. 

The first tip is planning.

If you are lucky enough to have both of you parents living in a 2 hour radius of each other, then planning is going to be your best friend. Plan whose house you are going to go to first, how long you are going to stay there, and what time you are going to leave. Although obvious, I would definitely recommend going to the parents house that is closest to your school last so that you have to spend less time driving back to school. If your parents don’t live close to each other I would pick another 4 day break, and spend one break with one parent and the other break with the other parent. 

The second tip is dividing time equally.

If you’re like me, then nothing makes you feel as bad as having one parent get mad or upset with you for “spending more time with the other”. Our parents love us and they should feel just as equally loved. So I would spend all of Thursday and Friday with one parent and all of Saturday and Sunday with another. 

The third tip, is do what makes you happy.

The great thing about parents is that they are supposed to love us unconditionally, no matter what we do. So, if you do find yourself having an extremely good time at one parents house and don’t feel like leaving just call the other parent and tell them the truth and make plans to visit them another time. This is the break between being stressed out and being extremely stressed out, so we need to make sure our head is in the right place when we get back to school!