--- title: When parents separate — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «When parents separate», a lesson of the adult life course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Sometimes parents are so unhappy together for so long that they decide to stop living as a couple; this is called separating, and later it may be --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/) / When parents separate # When parents separate Lesson 15 of the adult life course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/0/) — Sometimes parents are so unhappy together for so long that they decide to stop living as a couple; this is called separating, and later it may become a divorce, the legal end of a marriage. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/1/) — A separation ends the marriage, not the family: both parents still love their children, and children never cause a split and cannot undo it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/2/) — Picture a kitchen in Toronto: Mum and Dad sit you down together, Dad says "Mum and I have decided to separate", and Mum hugs you tight and says "It's not your fault" — and it is true. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/3/) — Afterwards life has new shapes: a second home with a room for you, a colour-coded calendar on the fridge, Sunday handovers in a car park, two toothbrushes, and lawyers and courts sorting out the grown-up paperwork. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/4/) — Hurt grown-ups sometimes say unkind things about each other and regret it; you never have to choose a side or carry their words. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/5/) — "We have something to tell you" means important news, good or hard, and parents plan such talks so they can tell children carefully and together. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/6/) — Separating means parents stop living together as a couple; it may lead to a divorce, but not always straight away. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/8/) — Parents say "It's not your fault" because many children secretly think they caused the split, and it is true: children's behaviour does not end a marriage. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/9/) — After a separation one parent often moves to a new home and sets up a room for the children so they feel at home in both. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/10/) — A solicitor is a kind of lawyer who helps with legal things like a divorce; seeing one does not mean anyone is in trouble with the police. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/11/) — A divorce is the official legal end of a marriage, and "the divorce came through" means the court has finished it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/12/) — A divorce can feel sad and also a relief, because a long, hard process is over. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/13/) — Custody, or "arrangements", means deciding where children live and when they see each parent; if parents cannot agree, a mediator (a trained helper who helps them agree) or a family court helps decide what is best for the children. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/14/) — A shared calendar with "Dad's weekend" and "Mum's weekend" shows which home a child is at on which days, so everyone can plan. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/15/) — A handover is when one parent brings the child to the other; meeting in a neutral place like a car park keeps it calm and quick. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/16/) — Children with two homes often have two toothbrushes, two sets of pyjamas and two bedrooms, so they do not carry everything back and forth. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/15-when-parents-separate/18/) — A parent who says something unkind about the other and then "Forget I said that" has slipped; children do not have to agree or pass it on. - ← previous: [Grown-ups who argue and make up](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/14-grown-ups-who-argue-and-make-up/) - next →: [New partners and step-families](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/16-new-partners-and-step-families/) - ↑ back to [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/)