Since the xh and I split a year ago, both of my kids have gone through different emotions. The older one(8) initially had trouble understanding and we seem to have worked through a lot of it with him over the last year. The 5 y/o has in his own little blissfully ignorant world up until recently. At the end of the school year he was "getting in trouble" regularly and has been very whiney and clingy(wont even use the restroom by himself) all Summer long. I set aside time to talk which each of the kids individually every week and that seemed to help the older one, the talks went from serious issues to just casual conversations with mom. Now my 5 y/o is the one that's having trouble dealing and he's little and has a hard time expressing it, he's going from casual to serious talks with me. I'm hoping now that he's aware that its affecting him I can find a way to help talk him through it better. Last nights talk was a lot of trying to make him aware I care about his feelings and reassuring him that mommy and daddy get along better now and we both love them very much and that he can always talk to me about how he's feeling.

Any suggestions on how to deal with a small child and divorce? I'm also having issues with the older one(who is an incredible big brother) being very impatient with the younger one's whiney and clinginess, basically just telling him that he's younger and cant always express how he feels with words and we need to be patient compassionate and supportive of him.