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3 Ways My Divorce Benefited My Kids
We hear about the disadvantages divorce gives kids, but what about the advantages they get?
I stayed in my unhappy, and sometimes abusive, marriage far longer than I should have. The reason I stayed was simple: I had a child (and later, one on the way) and I was worried about the impact of a divorce on him.
I’d heard all the statistics and horror stories. How kids of divorce are more likely to end up divorced themselves. How going back and forth between parents who don’t get along can have a negative emotional impact. How they might think it’s their fault that their parents got divorced.
And with those thoughts rolling around in my mind, I felt like I needed to keep trying. Until the day came when I could no longer keep trying. When it reached a point where divorce wasn’t just about getting out of an unhappy marriage, but about saving myself and my children, I didn’t think twice about how it might affect my kids anymore. I knew whatever negative side effects came from divorce, they were better than the alternative that came with staying married.
My kids aren’t old enough yet to get married so I can’t say whether I should worry that my divorce might lead to a divorce for them. And their father walked away soon after our divorce so I never saw that…
