Divorce and Kids
“And a husband must not divorce his wife.” 1 Corinthians 7:11
[The daughter in Sunday’s the “Dear Daddy” story] described the trauma of her father’s deserting their family as like being in a car wreck. That is the impact () divorce typically has /on children. It is devastating! For more than twenty‐five years, California psychologist Judith Wallerstein has tracked hundreds of children of divorce /from childhood to adulthood. She’s found that [the distress () young children experience after a divorce] remains /with them /throughout their lives, making it more difficult /for them to cope with challenges.
* (the distress which is) making it more difficult /for them to cope with challenges (it = to cope with challenges)
“Unlike the adult experience,” Wallerstein says, “the child’s suffering does not reach its peak /at the breakup and then level off.
The effect of the parents’ divorce is played and replayed /throughout the first three decades of the children’s lives.” Harvard University psychiatrist Armand Nicholi says that the pain of divorce is worse /for children /five years later than at the time the family disintegrates. He also links interruption of parent‐child relationships /with an escalation in psychiatric problems for children.
The next time () the idea of divorce enters your thoughts, consider the consequences of such an act /on the most vulnerable members of your family. Research shows that time doesn’t heal those wounds.
Just between us…