When your Parents Divorce

My parents divorced when i was eleven years old, and ever since then i have always asked myself why. My parents had been married for eighteen years, i never would've thought they'd get divorced. Admittedly, i really didn't handle the situation all that great, looking back now i can see that affected me significantly. After growing up a little bit, i began to wonder why do couples with children get divorced? As a result of my research i found that when couples get divorced, it doesn't cause too much trouble for those parties involved. However, if the couple has a child, that makes a huge difference. These kids that have to go through their parents divorce, they begin to rebel and get into trouble because they feel abandoned or alone.

According to Jann Gumbiner, in the article Introduction to Divorce and Children, she states that there are no firm rules for a good or a bad divorce. Divorce hurts children, even the grown ones (divorce, Gumbiner). Personally, i can say that Jann is correct, because when i went through my parents divorce, i wasn't a little kid, and i had to deal with it. Now, this article focuses primarily on how divorce affects the children. However, in some divorces, parents are not the only ones to seperate.

In families with siblings, for example, one or more of the siblings may primarily live with their mother, while the other sibling or siblings may primarily live with their father. Such a divorce arrangement is known as split custody, which is seldom granted by judges(espejo). Courts in most states are opposed to separating siblings when their parents divorce. Children are experiencing the trauma of their parents' separation, and judges often see parting them from each other as an added cruelty at an already vulnerable time (Beverly Bird). Indeed, numerous experts believe that split custody is far from ideal and hurts the relationships between siblings”as well as their emotional, social, and psychological development(espejo).

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