Health & Sex

What to Do When Your Children Divorce

Offer Divorcing Children Financial and Practical Help -- Carefully continued...

Consider, too, how help affects other family members, Temlock says. She once heard a young woman complain that she resented having to attend a community college. But she had little choice because her parents had spent her college funds on an older sister's mortgage payments for several years after her divorce.

"You need to know when to diplomatically withdraw your support so that you are not in a position that you have really taken on too much and it becomes a burden," Temlock says. "Your role is not to provide long-term financial support. Your goal is to point your child toward financial independence. Doing too much is as bad as doing too little."