Why Must Kid Films Demonize Divorce? 

I avoid these films and I hope other parents do too. The potential benefit of them is that they give children of divorce some recognition for the deep terrible feelings they're feeling and perhaps can't voice even to themselves, let alone to either parent. Kind of like emo music.

Films that demonized divorce had nothing to do with my aversion to divorce. My own parents' divorce, and the faith of my childhood, not to mention the many splendid myths or idealized images of marriage, steered me from it. Unfortunately when a spouse serves papers there's not much choice.

Speaking both as a child of divorce and as the mother of one, divorce is a fate worse than death -- for *now*. But even a film that demonizes the divorce may give children who know it some deep relief that they are not the only ones who feel what they feel.

I generally do agree with you, Joel, but I also wield a lot of power over what gets viewed by my child and in our home, and we just don't watch movies like that. I try to keep lines of communication open and we discuss the divorce and her feelings as gently, openly, tearfully, and persistently as necessary.

Joel, I tend to disagree with you on this subject. If children are made aware of what Divorce is and the pain and suffering that is caused by it, they may, when they grow up not divorce so easily.
To me Divorce is a fate worse then death.