Being a kid with divorced parents is hard. For many kids, going through a divorce will be the most painful and gut-wrenching thing they ever experience.
Being a parent going through a divorce is also hard, but too often in a divorce, the parents are each starting over and coming out on top in new, better lives. For kids, not so much. But children of divorce don’t have to be damaged and traumatized. It’s all about how the parents handle it.
I?pulled?a list of things together from my experience and from other people’s experience as children of divorce.
1. Having to pack luggage every weekend to go to a different house really sucks.
2. Mom and I got in a fight so I’m happy I get to go to dad’s house.
3. My step-siblings get special treatment and are really mean to me.
4. My step-mom doesn’t like it when I practice my instrument at dad’s house.
5. I have to sleep on the couch at dad’s house because I don’t have a room.
6. I have to share clothes with my step-siblings.
7. When we go out to eat, my step-mom makes the kids get one entr?e and share, and we always have to get water. I’ve never had a soft drink at a restaurant when I go out to dinner with my dad’s family.
8. My parents always make me pick sides whenever there is a disagreement.
9. I always hear my step-mom saying really mean things about my mom, to my dad. It really huts me that he allows it to happen.
10. My parents are always fighting about child support. We start to feel like we’re just pawns in a game over a few hundred bucks.
11. My best friend’s birthday party is this weekend, but I can’t go because it’s my dad’s weekend. He is forcing me to?come to his house.
12. I get two Christmas-times! That’s one of the good things. It’s like two small Christmas celebrations instead of one big one.
13. In junior high I was in drill team and for homecoming, our dad was supposed to escort us. I didn’t know if I should pick my real dad or my step-dad because I didn’t want anybody getting mad at me. I ended up being the only weirdo being escorted by two dads.
14. It’s my fault my parents don’t love each other anymore.
15. Why are mommy and daddy always fighting?
16. Mom and dad are always fighting over me, what can I do to make it better?
17. My mom is my only emergency contact at school, because my dad lives too far away.
18. I always have to fight for my dad’s attention.
19. I started my period this weekend and I’m embarrassed to ask my dad to buy me tampons or pads.
20. I go to church in my mom’s town on Sunday morning. All my friends go on Wednesday nights but I can never go because my dad gets me every Wednesday.
21. My dad always takes my stepmom’s side.
22. Mom always lets me watch cable and eat junk food but dad doesn’t let me.
23. I get confused on what I am allowed to do at each household because each parent has a different set of rules.
24. Saying ?You’re not my mom!? or ?You’re not my dad!? to your step-parents mid-argument.
25. My parents ask me to keep secrets.
26. Using the excuse ?I left my homework at my dad’s house? when in reality, you didn’t really do it.
27. If dad says no, ask mom. I’ve become a master at manipulation.
28. You have to learn to pretend to love your step-parents as you do your real parents. It’s really awkward.
29. I’m a boy and I’ve never lived with another man or had a male influence. I live with my mom and sister so I’ve never been fishing or played catch.
30. I don’t like my mom’s boyfriend.
31. Sometimes when my mom is upset with me, she says ?You’re just like your dad.?
32. When I get in trouble at my dad’s house and he threatens to take my phone, I tell him he can’t because he doesn’t pay the phone bill.
33. When I’m afraid, I don’t know who to go to. If I reach out to one parent, the other gets jealous. It leaves me better off if I just keep my fears to myself, even after a bad dream at night.
34. Anything that’s wrong with me, the other parent blames each other. I can’t just make a mistake without it becoming a war between my parents. They both end up forgetting that I may actually need help with this.
For a child, going through a divorce can be miserable and life-changing or it can be?OK, It? really just depends on how the parents handle it.?Add your comments in the comments section and I will update the article.
Featured image via.
