Gallery: Top 10 Post-Breakup Rules to Live By When Ya'll Have Kids Together

So, you and your once-significant other have decided to call it quits. The plot twist here is that you two have children who you both love, but whose entire worlds are now about to change.

So, what do you do? We mean, balancing your emotions from this breakup and being expected to perform as a functioning parent is no cake walk. This could either go two ways. You could one, keep the saltiness for your ex to a minimum and focus on your glow up as a newly single parent, or two, let the split consume you, transforming you into the bitter, petty, ex who couldn’t get over the heartache.

But you got kids! You don’t have the leisure of options here.

Imagine that it’s 30 years down the line and your offspring are calling you up to invite you to one of their therapy sessions because they never quite got over that point in their lives when mommy and daddy split. Your tantrums, snooping, and calling the other parent out didn’t quite equip your child for his or her future relationships.

Not quite the life you’d envisioned for your seed, right? It instead sounds a lot like something straight out of a horror anthology entitled, “Every Parent’s Nightmare.”

Regardless, your children are going to be affected by a break up, but they don’t have to be scarred for life. Your behavior post-breakup is low key crucial. We know it’s tough, so we put together some guidelines for you to stick to when it feels like shit is about to hit the fan.