My favorite joke: A couple in their
nineties appears before a judge to petition for a divorce. The judge
asks, why did you wait so long? They say, “we wanted to wait until
the kids were dead.”
So many people, women especially,
stick it out in bad marriages because they're “waiting until the
kids are grown.” The reality is that the kids are never grown.
Kids in their thirties and forties can be devastated by a parental
divorce.
I don't have any biological kids but
I have a foster daughter, Tina, who is now 27. Even though she only
lived with me and my husband for a few years she was devastated by
our divorce a few years ago. She said, “You were the only happily
married couple I ever knew. You were my model for a good marriage.
Now I don't know anyone who stuck it out.” Little did she know
that she was the reason we had a “good” marriage, at least as
long as she lived with us. She gave us someone to focus on besides
each other. When she left we were miserable again.
Also, since our marriage broke up
due to my husband's infidelity, she felt she had to take sides and
she chose me. So now she feels that she's lost the only father she's
ever known. I know so many young people who aren't speaking to one
parent or the other after the divorce because of cheating. Divorce
is hell on kids no matter how old they are.