The word "pawn" usually brings two images to mind - one, it might cause a picture of a pawn shop to appear in one's imagination; or two, it is a reminder of those who like to play a leisurely game of chess.

In this case "pawn" does not refer to either one of the above ideas.

Instead, it is related to minor children and how their innocence can so easily be shattered when their parents choose to throw them into the middle of their conflicts during the divorce proceedings.

Tragic as though it may seem to involve children in the mix of adult divorce issues, there are way too many parents out there who employ this dirty divorce trick and therefore participate in all kinds of activities that can only lead down the wrong path for the entire family.

The most common example of this divorce situation comes in the form of each parent choosing to speak in a negative and nasty manner about the other parent while in the presence of the children - and because adolescents are known to "parrot" everything they see and hear at their age, their parents therefore know that whatever they say about the opposing parent will no doubt be carried back to that party to cause more hurt and drama.

It does not stop there when it comes to using the minor children as weapons during divorce.

A painful aspect of a marital dissolution, especially after the divorce, is when one party begins to share a residence with his or her new significant other hence 'moving on' more quickly than the opposing party who may not yet be in another relationship, or without someone to date altogether.

Parents are perfectly aware that as adolescents are prone to do, they will therefore have no issue speaking their minds without censorship about what goes on at the other party's house.

This situation easily translates into another source of conflict between the parents - chances are the single spouse has no idea about his or her ex-spouse's new relationship after divorce, and it will be the child innocently mentioning the presence of the new significant other which will open up this latest can of worms for the parties.

To further increase the intensity, many times it will be the opposing spouse's close friend with whom the dating spouse chooses to carry on his or her next romantic relationship!

And the vicious revenge cycle will continue as the single party will most likely opt to modify the child custody order to state that the minor children are not permitted to be in the presence of the other spouse's new partner - which only serves to make life more difficult for the dating spouse if there is no real basis, other than humiliation, for the single spouse to request the visitation modification.

Another tactic used by one parent to mess with the other while putting the children in the middle is to consistently either be late, or early, in picking up or dropping off the minor children for their child visitation schedule.

Luckily there is a way to combat this particular visitation challenge, and it comes by way of the visitation centers that are set up through the courthouse and are used for the purpose of monitoring the pick-up and drop-off times of the children to make sure neither parent violates a divorce court order. And if a parent should dare to go against the order, the monitors will report it to the family law judge who will then make the final decision about fines or other types of punishment for the offending parent.

Divorcing spouses do more than just use their children as pawns during the divorce.

Another item on the spouse agenda is for each party to spite one another with the use of their community property. For example, it is not a rare event for the spouse responsible for support payments to open a new bank account using another name (an alias) with the intention of hiding money from the receiving spouse (and the family law courts) so the other party has no claim to the funds.

Another prime example of spite, this time using community debts, is when the parties already know they are going to separate, but just have not done so quite yet. During the period before said separation takes place, one spouse may borrow money for the sole purpose of accruing just one more community debt for which the other spouse will be at least fifty percent responsible.

Then there is the situation of the parties' assets and debts being divided. When the time has come for the actual division event, it is a regular occurrence that one spouse will hide, sell, or find some other way to dispose of a community item that belongs to the other party and then claim ignorance when it comes to figuring out why said asset is no longer present in the division pile.

Horrendous as some of the above break-up schemes may seem, they are all too prevalent in today's world of divorce - which would also explain why these situations are popular topics for the Hollywood industry in the forms of movies and novels, or the media tabloid publications that details the lives of celebrities who divorce.

Rather than be caught up in these shenanigans, keep this mantra in mind - "stay in agreement, stay out of court!" - and a dirt-free divorce is the reward to enjoy.