Tinley Park Illinois Family Law Blog

Estate planning is an important part of growing older. You want to make sure that you take steps to protect yourself, your assets and your beneficiaries. An estate plan does all this by making sure your wishes are protected by law.

A good estate plan has several parts including your will, the assignment of guardians, trusts and more. Your attorney will talk to you about your specific situation and the plans that you need to put into place to protect your interests.

Child support is sometimes seen as a necessary evil among some parents. They know they need to take care of their children, and doing so requires that they pay an ex-spouse each month. The problem some people have with child support is not knowing where the money is being spent.

Some argue that child support is unnecessary if a parent has shared custody or that the support should be limited to paying only for items the child needs, like food, clothing or schooling. The reality is that child support can go to anything, from housing costs to clothes shopping for a parent, the children and others.

Whether you are married, separated, or divorced please stop putting the other parent down in front of your children. It is one thing to speak privately to a counselor or best friend about your frustrations with the other parent, but when you do so in front of your children, it causes them great damage.

Children are highly sensitive to the conflict going on between their parents. They want to believe in the fairy tales they’re watching on television and reading about in books. Children often feel confused and hopeless when they think of how love and relationships appear in reality. But, as parents you owe them the kindness and respect of stepping away from negative criticism of the parent that shares their DNA.

It can be hard to handle the emotions of a divorce, but there are a few things you can do to make divorce easier on yourself even if you've been blindsided. For instance, you can set aside specific days to handle paperwork or plan special outings to get away from the people who remind you of your divorce.

When you're dealing with the emotions of a divorce, the last thing you want them to do is to influence the way you react to your spouse's requests or demands. When you're reactionary, you're more likely to become angry or to fail to think things through completely, so it's best if you can find a place of calm before handling divorce subjects.