Argumentative Essay

Children of Divorce: The Effects of Divorce in the Present and Future

Mathew Gray

DeVry University

Professor Joyce Crawford-Martinez

August 26th, 2014

The outcome of divorce in this day and age is almost as common as a quarter landing on heads. Studies have shown, that just about one in every two marriages result in a divorce. Nevertheless, when two parents decide that they are ready to pack up and go their separate ways, it usually ends badly for the children, resulting in a downward spiral of emotion and physiological issues. Take it from someone who has been there, my parent’s divorced when I was eight years old. I grew up resenting divorce because I never wanted my child to experience a life in my shoes. Thinking back, I remember crying myself to sleep on a nightly basis, wondering if it was my fault that my parents didn’t like each other anymore. Confused was an understatement, my world was torn apart. The two people that I loved most in this world, hated each other, and used me and my younger sister as ammunition against one another in their arguments. Fighting and arguing became a regular event, we didn’t have family dinners or Saturday outings, my parents couldn’t stand each other long enough to even put on a fake smile, this crushed us! Have you ever had to pick which one of your parents you like the most? That’s not exactly an easy thing to do, nor is it something that any child should have to experience. Now as an adult, my fifteen month old son is experiencing the unfortunate lifestyle that I’ve resented for the last twenty years. Divorce isn’t just a short –term situation, the affects it brings to children not only affect them in the present moment, but also in the future as they grow into young adults. The question you should ask yourself is, why this is so? Also, at what degree of impact, will this situation have on the adolescent’s life? Well, the answer is simple. Divorce effects children in the present and in the future...