Divorce and Blended Families

When a family faces challenges that cannot be fixed by both partners for whatever reason and the situation just continues to worsen, a divorce takes place. Couples are more likely to divorce when they have different hobbies, plans and ideas, friends, lack of communication, and selfishness plays a role in the relationship. It is difficult to accept when they don’t even show love and emotional connection with one another. Unlike a successful relationship is when both people have the attributes that are appreciated. Divorce not only affects the couple who is going through the crisis, but the children are most affected if the situation if it is not carefully treated.

There are six stages of divorce: First, we begin with the emotional divorce. It means that there is a loss of trust, respect, and love for each other. Rather than helping one another to solve the problem, they begin to act in ways to hurt and reject each other. Then there is legal divorce in which the couple goes to court to finish the marriage. Depending how the case goes, many kids live with their mother due to the legal custody and the sad thing is that they usually can’t say much about where to go. Divorce can be a negative or positive impact. In one hand, it can cause heartache and depression. Or it can cause relief and a new chance to start over. The economic divorce where it involves who takes what such as the house, furniture, personal things they have worked during their marriage. Selfishness plays a toll on this situation. Co-parental can be difficult when and how to take care of children. Usually, it is done by custody and visitation rights. However, tensions may rise throughout this by putting their children in the middle. Community divorce is when the divorced couple leaves friends and family members behind because they feel uncomfortable when the relationship was primarily influenced by the other spouse. Lastly, psychic divorce is when the individual begins to heal after the breakup. It takes time for the person to close those wounds and it is also a time where they analyze the positive and negative things in the marriage. I believe divorce is one of the most painful experience a person can go through because the individual loses a person who they loved deeply and thought they were capable of enduring everything together. 

 

When it is time to transition, divorce couples may not marry again due to the emotional and the psychological damage from the experience and would rather spend their life with their children and stay single. However, some others decide to marry another person and try to move on with their lives once again. When there is a blended family, many things change such as the family structure, culture, and rules in the home. It becomes a bit complex and difficult to understand. For instance, children suffer the consequences of visiting the other parent and having to adjust to the different home. Same goes for the holidays, etc. In some difficult cases, a parent may not want to be involved anymore and may cut the relationship. This can cause resentment and sadness towards that parent. When there are stepparents, they have to build a relationship with the children that doesn’t take the parental role but rather it has to be respectful and kind. The biological parents will always hold the responsibility to discipline their children. It is like a division within the family and all members needs to be customed. It usually takes at least two years where things become normal because there is so much to learn from the other parent and step siblings if there is any during that period of time. In many instances, those relationships don’t last long.