Divorce is an intensely personal process that is often fraught with many challenges and difficulties. Many relationship experts suggest that divorce is the second most stressful event a person is likely to experience—only the death of a spouse is usually considered to be more stressful. Ending a marriage, however, does not always need to be turbulent and filled with acrimony. There are some practical things that you can do in advance that can make your divorce a little easier.

Divorce is not an entirely new phenomenon but it has certainly become more socially acceptable and widespread over the last 40 or so years. As divorce became more commonplace in the 1970s and 80s, a divorcing couples’ children were generally left under the care of their mothers. Divorced dads, by and large, seemed to be less important—with the exception of child support—in the bigger picture of raising the children.