Experiencing the Effects of a Divorce
Experiencing the Effects of a Divorce
“All those bad kids, they all have divorced parents”. I remember once hearing my mother say this when I was in 3rd grade. I didn’t understand why she would say something like that. After hearing my mom’s statement, I grew up thinking that if a kid had divorced parents, he would be bad. And she thought no “normal” families had divorced parents.
When I was about fifteen my parents started to act really strange. My father would come home from work and sit on his blue recliner chair in the living room. He would sit there for hours and not speak to anyone in the house. Just sit there and stare and drink his coffee, smoke his cigarettes and stare some more. It was the strangest thing. My mom and sisters would live their lives as if nothing were wrong. We continued to argue over who was going do the dishes, who was stealing each others clothes, the use of the phone, and what we were going to watch on TV. Our lives continued the way it had always been, except that my dad was not involved. I could not figure out why this was happening and neither could my sisters. We never questioned it. It was almost like it was an every day thing or it was expected. This went on for weeks.
Every night before I went to bed I would go give my dad a hug and tell him good night. I still remember his arms would shake and he would hug me back like he was never going to let go. I now realize, that is because I was the only one who would come to give him a hug or even talk to him.
As all of this was going on I noticed that my mom began to act a bit strange too. After dinner was made she would leave us to eat alone. Instead of eating with us, she would go down to the basement and talk on the phone. I was not sure whom she was talking too, but I knew she didn’t want anyone to know.
I do not remember exactly how I found out my parents were getting divorced. I remember saying “but I’m not a bad kid…this cant happen, my family is normal”. I just couldn’t understand why this would happen. Even though I was...