Divorce is not the end of a family: keeping dignity for the children's sake
How to go through a separation without destroying the children's relationship with both parents.
A separation ends the marriage, but it does not end the family: the children keep both parents, and the two adults keep a shared responsibility that no divorce cancels.
The hardest part is not the paperwork but the temptation to make the children a means of pressure — to ask them to take sides, to relay messages or to report on the other parent. This is exactly what leaves the deepest mark.
What helps is the opposite: agreeing on the practical questions in a calm setting, ideally with a mediator present, and keeping a rule that neither parent speaks badly about the other in front of the children.