Personal Narrative: My Parent's Divorce

Divorce is typically a very painful and emotional experience for all parties involved. Two divorces have occurred in my life, only one of which was recent enough for me to remember. Steven Mintz, the author of “American Childhood As a Social and Cultural Construct,” mentions, “Children today grow up under different circumstances than their immediate predecessors. They are more likely to experience their parents’ divorce” (2009:53). My mother and father divorced when I was two years old. Due to my age at the time of the divorce, I do not know anything about the divorce from experience. I only know what I have been told about the divorce because I was too young to remember it happening. Over time, my mother became unhappy with my father’s “workaholic” attitude. He averaged

In the Spring of 2011, my parents got a divorce. I was thirteen years old and it was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to experience. I can remember like it was yesterday when my mother sat me down and confessed the tragic news. Going through something that horrific, I would never wish divorce on anyone. Being a child of divorce, I went though the divorce differently than my mother and father did. With both parents being separated in different homes, I had to choose who I wanted to stay with on the nightly. It was a bad situation because both parents were going through such a destructive time, yet both desired always to be with my sister and I. That was the most painful and challenging decision I would have to daily make. I never

Going through my parent’s divorce was very life changing for me. I went through so many emotions, which until this day is a topic that is hard for me to talk about. It was very sad not seeing my parents together, having no clue where my dad was and seeing my mom sad. I would love to spend time with my parents and brothers. For example, our Sunday’s mornings, seeing my mom cook breakfast, watching my dad drink his cup of coffee, watching TV with my brothers, then playing Latin music seeing my parents dance. I loved that so much. So not having that out of

Often enough, divorce usually has a negative effect on people. I am no exception to that. Though I was too young to remember what life was like before my parents separated themselves, having that life for as long as I can think of was not a good experience. It caused me to have a serious case of anxiety before going to my dad’s house for visitation, during, and after. No one likes to feel anxious or stressed, and I felt that everyday, all the time. I was a self-conscious, shy girl who wasn’t ready for complex

My parents divorced when I was about seven years old, and my mom became the custodial parent. As my younger sister and brother, and I could adapt to always going back and forth between our parent’s. The challenging thing about having divorced parents is meeting their new significant other, which I have met multiple of them. Another thing is meeting my parent’s significant other’s children. Each person I met was nice, and if I was meeting a toddler, they were energetic. Although, each time I did meet these people, I was usually very distant and dramatic.

I can remember the gut wrenching feeling that overwhelmed my entire body the moment my parents broke the news to both my sisters and me. I sensed a lump in my throat and was unable to swallow, and tears that filled my eyes right before they streamed down my face. My cheeks were feverishly red as anger overcame my body. I could not accept that my parents were going to be getting a divorce.

As a result, my grades went downhill and I had a hard time dealing with my emotions. Halfway through my sophomore year, I realized that I was the one person in my life that did not have to be affected by the divorce. I picked up my grades, improved my study habits, and began to enjoy high school more. I learned how hard it is to run a household. My dad worked long hours and traveled most of the month, and I had to step in and become the new “mom”. After school each day, I make sure that Tim’s homework is done, I help to prepare dinner, and I brave the cold New England weather to walk our dog, Bailey in the morning and late at night so that my dad can rest after coming home from a long day of work.

I would have never thought I would have to deal with it until it happened to me. After all the dust settled, everyone moved away and grew apart. My father and I, on the other hand, grew ten times closer. Even though divorce is a mean thing, it has made me who I am. It made me grow up and realize that no everything is cupcakes and rainbows. The whole experience has also changed my whole perspective on marriage. Since the divorce has happened I have realized that, I can not marry any guy, I must find the right one who is in it for the long run. I do not want to put my future kids through a divorce so I plan on only marrying once and, the divorce has helped see this. My family is not big but it is the best family I could ask

At initial, I did not comprehend the meaning of a divorce. For me a divorce meant that my dad was going to take vacations, however, come back to the house once he finished his vacations; little did I know that it was not like that. It meant that he would no longer live with us. At first, it was hard to get used to living in two different homes

Back in 2005, when I was in kindergarten and my sister was only two, my mom filed for a divorce. Now me being only a child had no idea what divorce even was or meant, so my mom simply told me that her and dad were fighting and they needed a break. I remember it was in the middle of the school year and I had to transfer from New Market to Granville Wells, which was not too hard for a outgoing kindergartener. My mom, sister,

We would always have to make sure we spent time with both parents. When Dalton and I were little we didn’t have a choice on where we wanted to go first, now that we are older we have a choice but we pretty much stick with the same thing we have been doing all our life. For Christmas we are with our dad at our aunt's Christmas Eve. We go back to our moms after her Christmas party and stay the night there to be there Christmas morning. After we do our stuff with mom that morning we go back with our dad to go to our grandmas, so it's not that bad of a set up. It’s hard at times because my mom is remarried for the third time now and from when I was 3 to about 13 or 14 years old we would always be with her and Tom, my step dad, in the mornings. Now it;s her and Scott. Sometimes on holidays I would rather just hang out with my dad and grandma to help them make all the food, but it is nice to be with my mom on certain

In 2004, my parents divorced. If you asked for details, that would be about all I could tell you. I remember next to nothing about the divorce. Not the reasons, not how long it lasted, not who ended up with what, I don’t remember. What matters is how it changed the way that I would grow up, and how it would affect my communication for my entire childhood.

My parents got divorced about eight years ago. For my younger sisters and me, we didn't quite exactly understand the emotional toll that it would take on our family at the time with us being such a young age. The first night sleeping at what I now had to call “my dad’s house” was unsettling knowing just one of my parents was in the house. In my little grade school mind, I was mainly concerned with the fact that my family would never be normal again and that I would be embarrassed to tell my friends that I lived in two separate

People know a divorce can hurt a family, but they don’t always understand how it can change people’s behavior, until it is told to them. In a divorce, people think of it currently but not how it will change people in that situation for the rest of their lives. For instance, a child can be grown up and think that their life is perfect and it all changes from a safe place we once had into a place where you need to be careful everyplace you step. Suddenly, everything just become confusing and you blame yourself for the family separation, but you learn that it wasn’t and you could never change the outcome. You become closer to one parent and distant to the other, not knowing how much they are going to be in your future life or when you have children. When will your children get to visit their grandma or grandpa.

When everyone is younger, they picture themselves getting married, having a stable career, and a family. But not every marriage turns out to be picture perfect like it does when you envision your future. The couples that cannot work out their issues turn to divorce. Some marriages need to end, especially ones that are abusive. In the end, the parent and children have a more positive effect because they got away from a bad situation. But marriages could end for many reasons, such as one of the spouses having an affair, the couple falling out of love, they could be fighting more often, and so forth. When parents do divorce, every child reacts to their parents splitting differently, but most of the time it will come with some effect whether it be positive or negative. Divorce changes the lives of a family, and children usually take it harder than the parents because they not only witness everything their parents are going through, but they have to deal with the circumstances of divorce as well.