It is often a hard adjustment for any new single parent to make when their partner is no longer a partner, but now a co-parent. Ine de Villiers, founder of Family Focus Therapy Centre, spoke to a group of single parents from the UFS staff. As a counselling psychologist, De Villiers offered solution-oriented ways in which single parents can find a middle ground of parenting styles with ex-spouses.

De Villiers encourages single parents to keep family rituals alive and to be persistent in the mundane, everyday activities. For any parent, it is inevitable that their parenting instincts will result in them being overprotective. However, De Villiers warns, “When you are overprotective, you put a damper on the behavioural stage your child finds him/herself in.”

The biggest adjustment children have to go through is living in two houses. A sensible time period to allow for them to adjust is six months to a year. In this regard, parents must “be accommodating but consistent,” De Villiers informed.
- Hatsu Mphatsoe