Thanks again!

It really hit home for me.

A key phrase in the press release you cited is “both fit and willing parents.”

The parents have to be fit and willing to do what it takes to nurture their child after a divorce. Sometimes that means that in order to adequately nurture their children, they have to suppress their own feelings about what happened and their own often selfish desires to move on with their life. They need to be fit to be parents and they need to be willing to be parents.

The emotional scars of a divorce for a child can last long after the parents have moved on past it. The emotional scars can last a lifetime, especially if the divorce is an acrimonious one.

I’m writing from my own experience. I was a child from a broken home before broken homes became so much a normal part of our society. My parents divorced in the early 50s. I don’t remember acrimony between my parents. They just were often not there for me – and for several years, neither of them were even in the same state as I was. Fortunately, there were other family members to provide the nurturing and support that allowed me to become a fairly normal – and productive – adult.

While it is still emotionally painful when I reflect on what might have been, what I missed out on, I am on good terms with both of my parents. They both grew up and raised other kids – my dad and step-mom raised 4 more and my mom paid penance by raising my sister’s kids. We’ll be traveling north next week to spend time with my dad and to the east coast next year to visit my mom.