Posted on 10/15/2005 6:41:32 PM PDT by madprof98
...or an Episcopal priest turned gay. In that case we "celebrate" his new discovery and feed his newly acquired promiscuity with acceptance. (and of course we'll promote that priest to bishop asap)
I grew up in a home with parents who fought at least every week. Massive scream fests that at time ended up violently. Me and my brother would sleep together those nights. He would wet the bed from all the trauma of listening to these battles.
I was never so happy as when they decided to get a divorce, unfortunately it wasn't early enough for us. Kids aren't alwasy better off with parents that stay together.
I understand Gene Robinson's kids claim they are better off for having been abandoned. Perhaps they are.
Dont know that I agee with you about the way to show children that you love them, is to stay with them no matter what....
I worked for a woman who was married to a very abusive man...she remained married to him, as both parents were Catholic, married in the Catholic Church, and did not believe in divorce, for any reason...
But this man regularly beat my boss up, and when he got tired of smacking her around, he started in on the two boys...Now, ,this was during the mid 1960s and I dont know if even the police would have intervened in this mess...
One nite, he started in beating up this woman...then he physically picked her up, and threw her out of the house, keeping the two boys inside...she ran to her parents, seeking help, and fearing what had happened to the boys...shortly after that, the two boys appeared..apparently they heard their mom being thrown out, and quickly dressed, hoping to try to escape through a window, which they did successfully...but my boss says that when they arrived at her parents house, the younger boy, much shorter and thinner, than the older oby, was dressed in his older brothers clothes, and the older boy had crammed himself into his younger brothers clothes...the sight of her two boys, scared to death, ,crying, and dressed in each others clothing, ,convinced her, that regardless of what the Catholic Church thought, enough was enough, ,and she was going to get a divorce...
Which she did...both she and her boys did have to have intense therapy, but seemed to be managing and making progress...then she met a wonderful man, who loved her and her boys...she married him, and they remained married for decades...and her two boys, were ever thankful, that she took them out of that horrible situation, where she and they were regularly were beaten and abused by a man who thought of them as nothing more than punching bags...I dont think that either the wife of the children ever believed this man loved them, as much as he abused them...
Of course, not all cases of family problems, or dysfunction are as extreme...and I do think that many people do divorce for the most trival and ridiculous of reasons...
But I just dont believe that we can make a blanket statement, that kids always benefit from the parents remaining together..sometimes the parents staying together causes greater harm to the children...
The study doesn't claim that kids are "always" better off. But you wonder: What kind of people bring children into the world and then subject them to the kind of behavior you describe? How could people possibly do that--not only to one another but to innocent human beings whom they themselves chose to create? In my mind, the choices are (a) insanity or (b) pure evil.
I responded to your point in post 25. But I think many people who contemplate divorce aren't even close to anything like you've described. Rather, if pressed, they insist that something more like "emotional abuse" on the part of their spouse is driving them apart. Sometimes (I know from watching it in family members) the so-called abuse consists in the wife/mother of the family getting older and flabbier and shorter-tempered than the hot chick at the office.
Actually they were just ordinary folks living day to day trying to raise children. They each came together with their own problems and together it was explosive. Nothing evil about it. This was during and after the Vietnam war. Times were scary and hard. Lots of changes going on in the world they were having to deal with.
So very true.
The serious studies all show they indeed survive BUT the children are NOT just fine!
That is a fiction carried in the mind of a parent who would rather not bear any guilt over the divorce.
Yep, I get your point.
You sound like a kind and forgiving person. But I refuse to believe there is "nothing evil" about parents engaging in "massive screamfests" that cause their small children to huddle together and pee the bed. And when we shrug off or rationalize the wrong that others do to us, we too often end up repeating the behavior in our own lives. That's what so often happens with many of the children of divorce: (stage one) I'm mad that dad had an affair; (stage two) now that I'm married myself, I understand why dad had that affair; (stage three) I really need to have an affair.
Trying to not be TOO persoal here, However, You would have to meet my childs father.
The best thing that ever has happened in my life is this child.
"at the time" we both wanted to be parents. " at the time" does not always last.
It should have little to know affect on the child.
If, at least one parent cares, Enough to parent.
Not an exact male/female ratio..But some parents DO choose to leave the nest.
Half of marriages end in divorce. You can't describe that many marriages as "abusive" relationships.
I certainly don't shrug off their behavior. I've always let them know how much that tore us up and how wrong it was for them to put us thru it. I've known them all my life, they are not evil and never intentionally hurt us.
We are all flawed humans, their flaws were in dealing with conflicts. They tried to out yell each other to be heard. One day they were teenagers the next they were parents raising kids and fighting wars. It happens, I can accept their failings without putting the devil in them.
I hear them but I don't know them, really. If I knew them and could vouch for their happiness then I'd still be concerned for their well being.
I remain a skeptic, unwilling to adjust my standards of right and wrong to match what these poor people deem as "better off."
I'm not so sure the whole trauma of what they've been involved with has dawned upon them completely yet.
Which is NOT to say that half the people who get married will get divorced.
You do understand the difference don't you?
I personally think that divorce should be avoided but there are times when it is preferable.
You're right. I have no studies on this, but I have the impression that the children of divorce who fare best are those who really do grasp what has happened to them. That's very hard for young adults, though, because most young people really do want to look on their parents (both of them) as role models.
No many of us didn't have an ideal childhood. I came from a single parent family due to my father's death.
I did survive, and am successful. However lack of a father in my life has had some long lasting consequences in the way I deal with people and arrange my life. Now, I can intellectually look at some of these things and choose to let it be an issue - or not.
There are occasions when divorce may be the best of bad options. And how the child compensates has something to do with how old they are when the divorce occurs.
Two united parents are better than one. Sometimes life isn't ideal, and we have to do the best we can, but we shouldn't kid ourselves about it.
Thanks for your response...Why do people bring children into the world, only to subject them to awful situations?....I dont know that anyone has one answer for that...sometimes two people marry, things are ok for a while, and then for whatever reason, things go bad...Insanity and pure evil are two reasonsyou list as your personal choices...but I would just wager there are a whole bunch of reasons...
I was a military wife...I knew, going into my marriage, ,that being in the military, statistically raises the probability of divorcing...many women just cannot handle the rigors of having a husband in the army...its not easy having your husband deployed, or in the field, or gone for days, weeks, or months, never knowing for sure where they are or how they are...its not easy being transfered and uprooted all the time...for some women its just not the married life they envisioned, and they just cannot take it...and the hubby does not want to leave the military...and so they divorce...I dont know that I call that evil or insane...
And parents who have a child with a terminal disease, have a much higher incidence of divorce...its an ultimate stressor to have such a child...there is a lot of tension, guilt, blame, etc, and often it can and does destroy a marriage...My hubby and I were in this situation...and then our child died..and there it goes again, parents who suffer this loss, often wind up divorced...
So statistically, my husband and I, would be prime candidates for divorce...and I will admit, there were times, when being in the military, watching my child suffer, and then watching him die, were more than I thought I could handle...had we divorced, would that have been insane or evil?...
We are still married, and glad to be so...but had we divorced after what we had been through, I just dont see it as being necessarily insane or evil...I dont know what I could call it, but certainly not insane or evil..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.