Support through separation and divorce — the legal process, co-parenting, money, and rebuilding. From people who’ve been through it.
Divorce is several crises stacked on top of each other: an emotional one, a legal one, a financial one, and often a parenting one — usually all at once, while you’re least equipped to handle any of them.
This category is for working through that with people who’ve already done it.
What people talk about here
The early weeks, when nothing has been decided and everything feels unreal. Separation versus divorce, and what the process actually involves in Australia. Property, superannuation, and untangling joint finances. Co-parenting with someone you can barely speak to. Telling the children, and what they actually need to hear. Mediation and whether it’s worth trying. The disappearance of mutual friends. Dating again. And the slower work of rebuilding a sense of yourself that isn’t defined by the marriage or its ending.
Support beyond the forum
- Family Relationship Advice Line — Australian Government advice on separation, parenting and family relationships. Call 1800 050 321.
- National Debt Helpline — free, independent financial counselling. Call 1800 007 007.
- Lifeline — 24/7 crisis support and suicide prevention counselling. Call 13 11 14.
- healthdirect — Australian Government directory of family relationship services.
If you’re afraid of your former partner, that’s a safety matter rather than a relationship one. 1800RESPECT is available 24/7 on 1800 737 732, and our Domestic Violence category may be a better fit.
How to use this category
Nobody here is a lawyer, and family law is fact-specific — what happened in someone else’s settlement tells you very little about yours. Use this space for the experience and the emotional side, and get proper legal advice for the decisions.
Please don’t name your ex, their lawyer, or anyone else involved. Beyond the risk to you, family law proceedings carry real restrictions on what can be published.