50% of high school students in 2023 are affected by divorce, and the most impacted people by divorce are from ages 3 to 15.
For some people, divorce is a broken machine you learn how to deal with but for Teo Lippy, a 14-year-old freshman student at Lincoln High School it was a breath of fresh air. His parents told him and his sister that they were getting a divorce at ages 10 and 12. He said that when he found out it was “sad, but I found out it was for the better.” He had been noticing that his parents had been fighting quite a bit and knew it would be for the better. When asked about how he felt about going back and forth between households, he said that it “is annoying sometimes but I got used to it eventually.” He also said that they have different rules in their houses but it’s pretty easy to manage. When he was asked about if he and his sister get along more or less when always being together he said “I feel like we have started to connect and stop fighting more recently, but other than that it has been kind of rough these past few years.” He was asked if he felt any sadness when he saw other families with their parents still together and he said “When I was 10 I felt sad at first but I soon got used to it.”
Alex Castaneda is a 15-year-old boy at Milwaukie High School When he was asked the same questions some of them were very similar to Teo’s responses. Alex said that he was “Sad but felt that he needed to thug it out so he could move on with his life.” He was 9 when his parents got divorced so he has had time to settle into it. When asked how he felt that his parents are both in different relationships he said “It was weird at first because of how I had only known them being together but I eventually got to know them and made a good connection with them” He was asked the same question about how it felt with his siblings but his older brother and younger sister are both from different moms so he was instead asked if he felt that because of that if he felt less of a connection with them? He answered “ I guess so, but I think that the more I know them the more I connect with them. But technically yes I don’t feel as connected to them as if they were my real siblings.”
Kristin Van Sickle is a 40-year-old wife and mother of 2 teens who had experienced divorce herself at a young age. She has had 5 dads in her time of life and 4 of them have walked out. When asked how she felt about all of them walking out she said “I don’t remember my real dad because he walked out on me at 2 but I was relieved when my 2nd dad walked out because of of abusive he was to my mom and he always made me scarred. But when my 3rd dad Jimmy walked out I felt super mad. I was 21 and had been my dad since I was 10, so I was angry that my mom didn’t try hard enough to make it work and I was angry at him for walking out.” When she was asked about not having a consistent father figure around she said that she always felt “abandon and sad.”
Divorce is something that affects all types of people, and it can be easier for some and harder for others. But as time goes on people who have experienced divorce of all ages soon get used to their new normal.