Generation X Children Of Divorce

I recently came across this article in the Wall Street Journal, The Divorce Generation and I found it fascinating – especially since I am both from Generation X and a child of divorce.

Whilst my parents were divorced when I was much older, 22 years old in fact, it still had a profound impact on me and I too will never forget the day that it all came tumbling down. Whilst, looking back, it had been coming for a very long time, I never wanted to admit that it would actually happen and in many ways it was the day that I lost my innocence and moved from childhood to adulthood.

The way that it influenced the next 10 years of my life cannot be dismissed, and it took me a long time to deal with the entire consequences of it all. In some ways I still am dealing it. But in saying this, I am not blaming my parents as I firmly believe that this is just life and everyone has cards that are dealt to them, good and bad.

Like the author in the article, my parents’ divorce did make me view relationships differently after this point and it did make me firm in my belief that I too would never get divorced. But also, like the author, I have been divorced and in some ways I too never wanted to admit how rotten this relationship was as I was so scared of divorce and the consequences I had already encountered. But luckily we had no children together so we never had to take on this extra dimension that many have to deal with.

It is fascinating how our generation is dealing with this and you can see it by the way people are so much more protective and smothering of their children and by the way we all live together before we get married – at least we can understand where that comes from. I certainly do not have the answers to the questions the author poses in this article, but I do think that it is something worth discussing so we can keep these issues top of mind in an effort to make our lives and the lives of our loved ones better.

Have a read for yourself in their article and comment back.