What is "The Kid's Guide to Divorce" by Lorrie Moore about, and what is the theme?

Lorrie Moore's "The Kid's Guide to Divorce" revolves around a child's learning how to navigate their new relationship with their mother post-divorce and is written in imperatives in the second person. The narrator instructs the child on how to act around their mother, who is self-absorbed and occupied by the Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant movie on television.
The narrator encourages the child to behave in a puerile, comically dramatic way and to ultimately provoke their mother in any way possible. On one hand, the story depicts a typical portrait of a child acting out and coping with their parents' divorce. On the other hand, the use of the second person creates an interesting twist, as it adds a sense of intention and deliberation to the child's behavior. In this context, then, the interesting use of narration turns readers' attention to the mother's behavior, whose attention the child is trying to grab.
The mother in the story is portrayed as vulnerable and testy; she vacillates between being annoyed at the child and being affectionate toward them. By the end of the story, as the child is about to go to bed and before the mother is left alone, the mother hesitantly asks about the child's time spent with their father. The story paints an unorthodox portrayal of divorce by showing the parent's side of the experience. It depicts divorce as an occurrence that affects not only a child's emotional state, but a parent's too, and in doing so, the story humanizes them both.

In the short story "The Kid's Guide to Divorce" by Lorrie Moore, an unknown narrator ostensibly gives a child instructions on how to behave on a visit to her recently divorced mother. The advice includes putting extra salt on the popcorn, making faces and exaggerated movements, requesting to watch a horror movie, continually asking for sugary cold drinks, imitating the gyrations of rock stars, indulging in some mild cursing, and not giving details about what happens when she visits her father.
Most of these random bits of so-called advice are not really useful at all. In fact, this story is not meant to be practical advice to children. It's written for adults, and the theme is the vulnerability and sense of dislocation and abandonment that accompanies a divorce, both for the parent and for the child. The mother is emotionally sensitive and somewhat irrational. The child has to react to each instance of the mother's erratic behavior in ways that will help her remain calm and not add to her trauma.
If there is a message for children in this story, it is not in any of the details of behavior that the narrator suggests, but rather in the realization that after parents get divorced, children have to be prepared for emotionally compromised parents and uncomfortable visits. As for the message to parents, the story indirectly suggests that they have to make an effort to not be so caught up in themselves and their own problems when their children come to visit.

"The Kid's Guide to Divorce" is a short story about the relationship between mother and child soon after the divorce of the parents. Throughout the story, the mother is caught between wanting to spoil the child and disciplining her and the child is caught between taking advantage of her mother's more relaxed attitude and making her mother feel better about herself.
For example, the mother allows the child to watch the chiller on TV, but when the child sees her mother's not enjoying it, she insists they watch something her mother would be more interested in. Throughout this back and forth, the child tests her mother by behaving badly. For example, she swears and dances around the room.
At the end of the story, it becomes clear that the child feels some resentment toward the mother for struggling to talk about the divorce with her. It is only when the child decides to go bed and the mother doesn't want to be left alone that the mother finally asks about her time away with her dad.
https://www.northernhighlands.org/cms/lib5/NJ01000179/Centricity/Domain/115/The%20Kids%20Guide%20to%20Divorce.pdf

“The Kid’s Guide to Divorce,” by Lorrie Moore, serves as a how-to guide to help children get through the process of divorce. The author uses humor and provides step-by-step instructions on how to get through a night of watching television while avoiding the topic of divorce. Written in the second-person point of view, the author provides simple directives to the reader, in this case the child, and provides the response that will be given by the mother.
A possible theme could be the idea that avoiding or ignoring the problem is sometimes the only way to get through the problem. By providing detailed steps for every action and response, the author attempts to guide the child through a difficult situation. In following the directions, there is little room left to think about or analyze the divorce and the problems faced by family members. As an example, near the end of the text the mother asks a specific question of the child regarding the child’s visit with her father. The guide directs the child to, “Leave out the part about the lady and the part about the beer.” This statement provides support to the theme of avoiding the topic and thereby avoiding what may be too difficult to discuss.