When a marriage comes to an end, a similar state of emergency exists, but no

one hands you a life preserver. You and your children are on your own,

thrashing about, trying hard to survive. Many parents in this situation feel like

helpless, frightened children themselves, wishing someone or something would

save them. Imagine, then, how devastated and powerless children feel. A

separation and divorce is a shocking experience for them, for their very

existence depends on their parents. They sustain tremendous losses and

experience great pain, during, and after divorce. This crisis and tragedy of

divorce is that this time, when parents are usually least able to help or even

think about helping, is when children need their help most of all (Bienfeld,1). The

effects of divorce on children can be devastating.

To children, divorce does not mean the second chance that it so often

means to one or both parents. To children it is the loss of their family - the entity

that provides them with support, stability, security, and continuity in an often

unpredictable world (Bienenfeld, 92). Children assume that their family is a given

Many couples believe that is better for the children if they stay together

grasp of what is happening, they become bewildered and frightened.

The answer is that some families do not regain their equilibrium after divorce but

Many children have little control over their tears. Here is how a fourteen-year-old

age reason that their parents could reconcile their differences if they tried hard

Anger, also, is a fairly common reaction among children going through a

as the spouse. Intense fears of abandonment are not uncommon. In the widely

hide their anger, fearing it will further upset or alienate their parents. Others

affected by divorce. Adolescents tend to react with a deep sense of loss, grief,

feelings that they are responsible for the divorce (91). Some will remember

I felt I was being punished by God for being really

Some common words found in the essay are:
Joan Kelly, Children Divorce, Dr Clapp, Dr Bienenfeld, Divorce Beginnings, divorce children, children divorce, Basic Books, York Macmillan, children ages, divorce parents, Wiley Sons, Hunter House, Alfred Knopf, judith wallerstein joan, chronic stress, widely cited, judith wallerstein, intact families, joan kelly, deep sense loss, wallerstein joan kelly, conflict damaging children, confused children,
Approximate Word count = 2373
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)