The divorce for Helen meant the loss of a companion. To cope with this she tried to find companionship in her children. This made parenting and discipline difficult. Helen had a lot of stress and issues herself, and had no one to really share it with or help her through it. "It's not easy for parents to lay down the law after divorce. Not only are they emotionally exhausted, they're reluctant to come down too hard on a child who has been through the breakup" (Fredericks 1). There are reports that show that single parents show lower levels of monitoring and discipline than married parents do. Single parents also seem to make fewer demands on the children and utilize less effective disciplinary strategies (Simons et al. 1). Helen'

Julie found love and comfort in her boyfriend Todd. She was looking for male figure unlike her father. She assumed that as long as her boyfriend was not like her father that her relationship would be successful. "Children take a long time to get over divorce. Indeed, its most harmful and profound effects tend to show up as the children reach maturity and struggle to form their own adult relationships. They're gun-shy. The slightest conflict sends them running. Expecting disaster, they create disaster. They look for love in strange places. They make terrible errors of judgment in whom they choose." Todd was not the best of choice in a boyfriend. Julie and Todd had a lot of problems in there relationship, which again relates to Julie not having a good example of what a relationship should be.

The Divorce caused a very important of all the family members lives to be missing. It causes them all many problems. The mother lost a companion, the son lost a male role model, and the daughter lost a disciplinarian. They lost things very important to their development. These things hinder their growth as individuals.

Research has shown that males have a greater tendency to have behavioral problems than females. It may be that males understand the danger of low parental control and interpret it as an absence of parental concern and caring (Simon et al. 10). Helen's lack of discipline and effective parenting was caused by her want of companionship in her children. This effected Helen and her children in a negative manner.

Helen also did not feel prepared to date and find a new companion because of the stress level involved. She already had much to deal with. She had her career which already took up a lot of her time. She needed to work so that she could support her children, but then did not have time for much else. She also had her children which took up a lot of time and did not want to have less time to spend with them. Her children caused a lot of the stress in her life and she did not need another thing that would add to her stress, which she feels dating will do.

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1496
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)