A new study has found that the best solution for co-parenting is to only have communication about children or parenting. Co-parenting can be challenging, but most couples agree that it has to work for the sake of the children, and they try their hardest to make sure that it is a peaceful as possible.

However, this can still be challenging for a lot of couples out there, and even though they know that they have to work on their communication, they are not sure where to start. They may look to studies and experts for guidance on how to make sure they are parenting together, separately, as best as possible.

According to Medical Xpress, new research has shown that healthy communication after a divorce should only be about the children and parenting, and nothing else. This study was done by West Virginia University, and it can be read in full here.

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The lead authors are Jonathon Beckmeyer and Jessica Troila, and they stated that there can be such a thing as “too much” communication between two parents who are divorced. They found this through a study of 708 divorced parents of children under the age of 18 years old.

They found that too much “innocuous” talk between divorced co-parents can put the well-being of their children at risk. They state that couples should keep all communications limited to shared parenting issues. This means no talking about current dating lives, personal issues that don’t involve children or the latest politics.

They agreed that communication is important for co-parents, for obvious reasons, but there can be too much, and it can be too frequent. What they call “overshares” can be harmful to individuals who are still adjusting to who they are outside the couple, or they could use this communication to create control and conflict, and that is why it is always best to be avoided all together.

What they found was that children who had behaviors like fighting, lying, cheating, feeling sad or fearful all had children whose parents communicated too much with each other about things that were not related to parenting.

Children who had co-parents that kept conversation to parenting only fared better when it came to behavior and emotions. The subject of divorce is a complex one, and studies like this are just the beginning when it comes to understanding what really is best for the children of divorced parents.

Sources: Medical Xpress, SAGE Journals