We've spoken before, about one of the fastest growing population of divorced people in the country — older couples over 50. The country has changed in the past quarter-century, in the way marriage is defined and the rise of women in the workplace. Studies have found that these Gray Divorcees are divorcing at double the rate they did as recently as 1990.
However, while the couples are usually splitting up by choice, there's another component that the divorce will effect that doesn't — their children. Janice Green, a family law attorney based in Austin and author of Divorce After 50, spoke to Yahoo! about the phenomenon that's affecting so many more adults today.
"A lot of parents who are in my office seeking a later-in-life divorce haven't really done a lot of thinking about how it's going to impact their kids," says Green. "But adult kids have longer-established family rituals and home memories than the younger ones, so in some sense the divorce can cause more of an impact."
The same article is a deep-dive into what causes the most irreparable damage to the psyche of an adult whose parents divorce later in life. The first two years are the hardest, according to Terry Gaspard, a licensed clinical social worker serving Rhode Island and Massachusetts. And during those two years, they won't get any relief either, as many find less support from family and friends. The fact that it didn't happen when they were younger makes it easier to brush off for most, including therapists, who some say are equally as unsympathetic.
For more:
Why It's So Hard for Adults When Their Parents Divorce (Yahoo)
Photo Courtesy Flickr / Roberto Trm