Week 12: Consequences of Divorce

Divorce is hard on the children, and there are sadly consequences that come from it.  They are losing their family.  Their relationship with both of their parents change, but more usually with the father and child since the mother usually has custody.  Even if it's joint custody, the mom gets them more most of the time.  The father sometimes ends up far away, and there was even a study that showed that around the time the child of divorced parents turns 15, the average father of that child is around 400 miles away from them.  Today my teacher went over reasons for why that could be.  The mother may have moved, either to where she was able to get a job, or she moved closer to family or some kind of support system after the divorce.  Perhaps it was because she remarried or wanted to get far away from her ex-husband.  Maybe the father moved to get another job to get more income because he has to pay for two different households now for child support.  He may even had remarried and moved to live with his wife.  Because of the distance, the child sees their father even less and loses the relationship they once had with them.
The child might withdraw from their parents because of change in their relationship to them or even to each other.  Sadly, some parents fight each other through the child and that can really damage that child's relationship with them.  Divorce is never an easy situation and will always change a child and not usually for the better.