It seems every time I go online some celebrity is getting divorced. It saddens me because it seems that no one remains married for long in our current society. Recently it was rumored that Homer and Marge Simpson were getting divorced, Ken and Barbie had some split a few years ago and yesterday evening Hermit and Missy Piggy announced a breakup. This came on the same week as various long term Hollywood couples announced their divorce.
I work with high conflict divorce as well as couples at various stages of divorce. Daily I witness the damage done to people by their parents' divorce as well as their own divorce. Divorce is traumatic. It is a death, and there is a grieving process associated with it.
What I don't understand is the need to divorce cartoon characters? I am wondering if Mickey and Minnie are OK.
We are society. We need to wake up to the fact that if we don't work harder at helping our friends remain together, learn to talk to each other and not condone frivolous divorces and separations we are slowly destroying our selves. There is money to be made in divorce and it feeds our capitalist roots. The buying and selling of homes, home goods, dating sites, and professional fees. But it is also a destructive force. I have been a therapist for 25 years. During my training I worked at starting groups for children whose parents were getting divorced. It now seems most kids are products of divorced families and the groups may have to be for children who live with their biological parents. Yes, I am being somewhat facetious but I see parents who remain together having a difficult time since most kids are now learning to effectively manipulate their divorced parents and many times have liberties and act out in ways children living with functional parents can not get away with.
I see a pattern where parents divorce, hit the online dating sites and become teens again. The children of these parents are lost and usually find trouble.
While there is a place for divorce in cases of abuse and other dysfunction , we have a problem when the majority, over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce. We have a bigger problem when family cartoons get divorced or separated. And for what? The perpetual " I am not happy" "He/She doesn't make me happy" Well, guess what? Your partner is not meant to make you "happy" they are not circus entertainers.
At some point we need to work on building and not destroying families. Healthy families are the foundation for the rearing of healthy children who grow up to be healthy adults. We must speak out if only with our wallets, and not support the message that after a while you leave your spouse and that is normal.
By no means are we to discriminate against the divorced but me must not encourage it. It's like getting a limb amputated, we first go to wound care and attempt to avoid the amputation.
