Friday, December 30, 2011

How Does Divorce Affect the Family? 3 Ways

Marriage is by all accounts a sacred institution. When people say their vows on their wedding day, that vast majority of them are quite serious when it comes to "until death do us part."

The seriousness with which most people take their own marriage is why it is so painful for the typical married person to consider the possibility of divorce when things are going badly.

Family Nature

Why Divorce Can Sometimes Look Like the Only Logical Option

How Does Divorce Affect the Family? 3 Ways

Every marriage experiences its ups and downs, good days and bad days. But, many marriages also go through much more serious rough patches. The husbands and wives in these marriages find themselves constantly fighting about this and that. When things get really bad, there can be infidelities, lying and going behind each others' back.

If your marriage is experiencing problems of a serious nature, sometimes divorce can feel like the only viable way out of your pain and discomfort. As with anything else in life, when something becomes really painful, we will do almost anything to get ourselves out of the pain. In the case of marriage, most people see divorce as the only logical way to make things better.

The prospect of getting a divorce is even harder to consider for people who have kids or who worry about the opinions of extended family members about a would-be divorce. And, these concerns about how the family would react are genuine and well-founded.

How Divorce Affects the Family: 3 Ways

If you are wondering, "How does divorce affect the family?", here are 3 ways that it can:

1. Divorce can defuse some of the negativity caused by constant fighting or discord: The act of divorce itself is stressful, but a sure result will be that the couple will spend much, much less time together - likely going on to lead separate lives. Any negativity that was being generated from day-to-day interactions as a couple will immediately go away.

2. It forces the family to question the bonds of marriage: On the downside, everyone who loves, knows or cares about the affected couple will question their own faith in the institution of marriage when they find out about the divorce. This is a normal reaction to divorce, reminding us that it affects not only the couple, but everyone they know.

3. It can cause the kids and extended family to be confused about where their allegiance lies: Children of the married couple, as well as extended family members like parents, siblings, aunts and uncles may go through a time of being confused about whom they should support during and after the divorce. The situation forces them to make difficult decisions about where their allegiance lies.

Divorce can affect the family in many ways, good and bad. The 3 ways that divorce can affect the family described above are some of the most typical ways. There are of course many variations on this theme, but these are the main ways divorce affects the family.

How Does Divorce Affect the Family? 3 Ways

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