Divorcing with children makes an already complex situation harder. However, most of the time, we imagine children of divorce to be pretty young. However, there are also the adult children to consider as well. In fact, there’s a few unique things these kids may deal with compared to their younger counterparts…
Adult Children: Emotional Impact of Divorce
Things getting harder
Life for adult children of divorcing parents, more often than not, gets a bit harder for a while. After all, they have to come to terms with the fact that the family they grew up in is ending. This can cause them to really re-evaluate what their parents have taught them, especially about relationships.
Plus, there’s also the logistical factors. Events and holidays will become a bit trickier to plan and pull off than they were before. If the adults have kids of their own, then they’ll also have to work out ways to make sure both parents can see their grandchildren.
Picking sides
Adult children of divorcing parents also have to deal with potential pressure to pick a side. A problem that parents run into when they have adult children is they sometimes forget to treat them like they’re still their kids. As a result, they don’t understand how hard this kind of situation is, and treat them as they would other adults.
However, the thing is that their kids aren’t just some other adult. They’ve grown up under that one single household all their lives . Feeling pressure to pick a side can just cause a lot of rifts and strains on their relationship with both parents.
Helping younger siblings
It’s not uncommon for younger adult children to have even younger siblings. As a result, when they learn their parents are divorcing, a number of things can happen. Their parents might tell them the news first, and ask to keep it a secret. Or, they might worry about how the news will impact their siblings and wonder how they can help.
Of course, this is another problem caused by the parents forgetting that their children are still their kids, despite being older. Things like breaking the news and dealing with reactions should be things the parents themselves do. They shouldn’t be done by someone else in the family.
