The Effect of Divorce on Children

AN ESSAY The Effect of Divorce on Children Family values are highly praised. When the family is broken up it can lead to divorce and ultimately many negative implications. So what is effect of divorce on children? Is it always negative? Needless to say, in today’s society, divorce has become a norm in our lives. Married couples today split up due to many different reasons, either because of conflicts in the marriage, lost of romantic feelings, a spouse committing an affair or some other type of marriage problems. Most of these divorced couples have children that are very young and very often don't have an idea how to deal with an event like a divorce. These children will have to learn to deal with their parent’s divorce, sometimes at very young age, affecting them in a positive or negative way. To begin with, divorce hurts children more than parents realize. It is always a traumatic experience in a person's life, especially a child's. When parents divorce, children are not always understand it. This omission can lead to problems with the child's perception of daily life. The impact divorce has on a family is more prominent to the children of the family than the parents. First of all, children have many of their own daily struggles to cope with, such as peer pressure. Adults sometimes forget what it is like to be a child. Many parents do not realize how something like divorce could possibly affect their children as much as it does themselves. As the case may be, children are strongly affected by divorce as they experience some kind of emotional change. Children’s relationships with their friends and relatives may become damaged. Secondly, divorce can also create an unhappy, unfriendly environment for the children. They may not like the person that their mother or father has chosen to be with. This can cause conflicts between stepparents, parents, and children. Children would also have the mental problem of choosing which parent to live with. This can cause a child to be confused and stressed because of the love the child has for both parents. He or she may start to show favoritism towards one of the parents. What is more, kids may look towards other things or relationships to ensure the trust that they were deprived from. For example, children may start taking drugs to relieve them of the stress they have gone through with their parents divorce. Besides, divorce can also cause children to look at marriage as being negative rather than positive. Some children may have problems with future relationships due to the example they receive from their own parents. To my mind, divorce can have long lasting affects on children. Divorce will never be considered a positive solution, nor will children ever be not affected by it in a negative way. Before couples get divorce, they should consider their children first and how it will affect them. Divorce may be the way out for parents, but it always hurts children’s psychological and social health.