Children tend to always look up to adults to help them understanding better the world they live in and to take the best choice in life. Unfortunately, they sometimes see the bitterness of the adult life which tends to live them angry and alienated, this makes children and divorce a recipe for unnecessary suffering on the children’s part.
Divorce for children can be considered quite a stressful situation where children might not be able to handle well such situation. There may be indeed many psychological problems that might be attached to children and divorce. For this reason, there is the Appogg in Malta that was primarily set up to help children whose parents are going through a Malta divorce proceeding and parents can also seek the help of a private therapist to support them personally and their children to go through such a traumatic experience. At Appogg, the help for children is provided not only throughout divorce proceedings but also throughout separation proceedings and annulment proceedings. In all these proceedings, these children meet with psychologists and social workers that help them overcome the stressful and psychological problems they might experience. These sessions with the respective psychologists and social workers continues until the psychologists and social workers feel that the children have overcome the awful experience they went through and were able to put the past behind them without any regrets and remorse. The problem that arises many times is that children might feel at fault for the parents to seek divorce, separation or annulment proceedings leaving the children in a situation where they have to grow up faster. Moreover, children might feel abandoned by any of the parents and when both parents keep being present in the children’s life, they might find themselves in a situation where they have to keep their parents from fighting. Children might also feel neglected by friends and maybe even picked on by friends.
However, the Appogg, which is situated in G’Mangia, offers help also to spouses themselves who might experience psychological problems themselves especially when one of the spouses has experienced any type of violence by the other spouse. A very big psychological aspect that is usually experienced by both children and any of the spouses is the change in lifestyle usually leading to poverty since divorce proceedings tend to be bit costly and less income might be then available after the divorce proceeding is through. Indeed, although both spouses have the obligation to maintain their children until, at least the age of majority, or until they finish their education, many times, the children’s parents tend to become try to compete for the children’s attention and that is at the detriment of the children’s wellbeing. The information above-indicated about Appogg was obtained directly through the agency.