Divorce and Children

Nekeisha Toppin

The Changing Family

Professor Stiehl

Divorce is Harmful to Children

Divorce is on the rise in the United States. It is frequently reported that the divorce rate in America is 50%, and it is only going to get higher (divorcerate.org). We have the leading divorce rate in the world (nationmaster.com). What these families fail to realize is that children are the innocent victims of these divorces. The separation between moms and dads can affect a child’s academic performance, and lower their self esteem. There are many solutions to prevent this from happening.

My sister, Kayla, is now in her early stage of becoming a teenager. Our mother and her father were divorced when Kayla was seven years old, and her attitude drastically changed after the divorce. I know that kids prefer for their mother and father to be together, but this little girl is a case. It all started when she was nine, and she stopped doing her homework. This girl would lie to my mother and say she didn’t have any homework that day. Then her teacher called my mother and told her that Kayla’s grades were dropping. My mother and the teacher scheduled a day for them to meet so that they could talk. After a few hours, they came up with a solution that Kayla would bring home a progress report in the middle of every semester so my mom could monitor Kayla’s academic progress, plus my mother would sign all homework sent home each day. When Kayla turned eleven everything turned upside down. My mom started getting calls from her school every two days that she was being rude to a teacher, or that Kayla started a fight with someone in the class. Kayla is now in the 10th grade, her reading level is way below average, and she doesn’t seem to care. It even goes so far that when I tell her to stop doing something she is ready to fight me. Sometimes Kayla gets me so mad I would knock her down to size, and let her know to respect me because I am her older sister. I would say this is just her being a...