Quarantined with Your Soon to be Ex-Spouse? Tips to Keep Things Civil

Turning on the news each day recently brings up a story about another county or city in the United States going into quarantine due to the spread of COVID-19, also called the novel coronavirus. While some people might be a little upbeat about the chance to spend more time with their families, many are going to end up in awkward situations while stuck indoors. Couples who recently decided to or filed for divorce might have it the worst.

In fact, divorce rates have spiked in China in cities where mandatory quarantines were recently lifted. Some marriage registry offices are reportedly seeing 100 filings a week for the past three weeks. Cabin fever is real, apparently, and being unable to leave when you’re quarantined with a spouse can tip some people towards a divorce.

Want to end quarantine and not your marriage? Remember these tips while under quarantine:

• Create a dedicated work zone: If you are lucky enough to be able to continue working from home while under self or mandatory quarantine, then you should try to make a room in your home a dedicate office. When you are in your home office, your spouse needs to respect that you are working and leave you to it. Discussions regarding the divorce should be off-limits in that room. You will need to assign two rooms as home offices if your spouse can also work from home. Trying to both work in the same area could make tensions run high.
• Unwind in your backyard: Being quarantined does not mean you need to always stay inside. Secure-in-place quarantines usually mean you can leave to purchase essentials or for medical reasons – be sure to check any local ordinances first, though. But you should also be free to spend time on your patio or in your backyard. Use the outdoor spaces to get fresh air and vent when you feel like you are getting on your last nerve with your spouse.
• Make a meal plan: One of the more stressful tasks of being quarantined is figuring out what you are going to eat each day. As you and your spouse go back and forth with what you want to eat, it can quickly escalate to a fight. Create a meal plan now that at least covers dinners for the next two weeks to take the guesswork out of eating while socially distancing.
• Spend more time with your children: Don’t forget that your children are also going to get a little stir crazy from being kept indoors for a while. This unfortunate situation does present an opportunity to start spending more time with your kids, as you probably had already planned to do before. When the whole family is playing together, you might find it is easy to temporarily let go of the animosity you might have been feeling about your spouse. Remember to not interact too much with your children if you are showing coronavirus symptoms. Even though children tend to experience little to no symptoms from COVID-19 exposure, it is still best to prioritize their health.
• Don’t get glued to the news: Lastly, you should consider making this blog post the last bit of coronavirus-related content and news you read for a while. Keeping your phone in your hand at all hours to get news updates about COVID-19 can fuel your own anxiety without actually providing many useful answers. If you get wound up from it, then you could take it out on your spouse inadvertently.

Contact Us Today

From all of us at Jorgensen, Brownell & Pepin, P.C. in Colorado, we hope everyone makes it through the coronavirus pandemic as healthy as can be. Do what you can to take care of yourself and one another, and we will come out stronger than before. If you want to know more about filing for divorce but do not feel comfortable leaving your home during recommended social distancing, you can call (720) 491-3117 to speak with a divorce attorney from our team remotely.