I didn't say it was easy. But you are either committed or you aren't.
emotions are tough things to control at the best of times.
True. But if one is a parent, they'd better LEARN to control their emotions. And if they can do it with the kids, then they should be able to do it with their spouse for the sake of the kids. I'm a firm believer that, if you treat someone with kindness, unless they are mentally unbalanced, they will begin to respond to you in a different (better) way.
The reality is that people say "OK I married the wrong person and now I'm stuck here for the children and I hate my life and all the people that are part of making suck".
If they can't be kind to one another, then staying in the marriage 'for the sake of the kids' may not be the best choice. And if they can't learn to control their emotions enough to treat one another kindly, then the kids have no chance whether the parents stay married or not.
Of course if people have decided they don't want to be together but will stay together "for the kids" obviously they aren't committed.
And I'm of the firm belief that treating a source of stress with kindness is harder than it sounds.
Like I said, bad marriages are bad for kids one way or the other. There's a list of damage done if you stay together for the kids and list of damage done if you divorce. Some time people gotta pick which way they themselves will do the least ammount of damage and go with that.