Before divorce, couples usually undergo separation--when they are still legally married, but no longer a couple. Divorce can occur for many reasons, such as cheating or because of wars that are currently taking place, but the types of relationships the couple has after the divorce can take on five different forms: perfect pals, cooperative colleagues, angry associates, fiery foes, or dissolved duo. Divorce can leave the couple with physical, emotional, and psychological affects; there are also financial problems that can ensue as well. Problems such as "who will pay for child support" also becomes a big issue, and whether or not the parent that the child does not live with can have visitation rights is a huge impact on the child's upbringing. Divorce is very hard on children for multiple reasons. If the parent treats the child like a peer and not a child, then the kid will feel enormous stress--from the divorce and from being forced to grow up too fast. The parents' fighting before a divorce, the time the divorce occurs in the child's life, the quality of the parenting after the divorce, and the economic hardship that the divorce brings are all major factors to the stress that divorce places onto kids. The major advantage that children who have to go through their parents' divorce have is that it can relieve the stress in the home from a failed marriage. 3% of couples end up going to therapy to try to maintain their relationships, but this can also be a huge financial burden.
2. Interesting
I found the article about dead-beat dads to be very interesting. There are many reasons that fathers evade paying child support: they don't take their parenting role seriously, they simply don't have the money, he feels shut out of the family, or he wishes to use child support as a form of control. It is interesting how the book looked at al possibilities.
3. Questions
What are your views on the box on page 439--should it be harder/impossible for people to get a divorce?
I don't think it should be impossible or even that difficult for people to get a divorce. However, I do think that by making it too convenient and free of consequences could decrease the value of marriage. Making divorce more acceptable is one of the main factors that lead to it's increase in the first place so I think that by making it any easier could result in another spike in the divorce rates.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Julie. It should not be extremely difficult to get a divorce but it should not be an easy process either. If divorce is made into an easy process, people will just get married for the hell of it because there won't be much that goes into getting out of the marriage. I believe that current divorce laws are good, but maybe divorce lawyers are too expensive. It's so easy to get married, it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to get divorced.
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