When most people think about divorces affecting young children, children of any marriage that ends can be greatly impacted, even if those children are adults themselves. So while you may be feeling like your parents divorce announced after you’ve left the home or even nearing the age when your parents would be entering assisted living facilities wouldn’t impact you as much, it very much still can. And because of this, it’s wise to know how to deal with the things that you’re feeling.
To help you with this, here are three tips for dealing with your parents’ divorce when it happens during your adulthood.
Know That Your Emotions Are Valid
Before you experience something like your parents’ divorce, there’s really no way of knowing how you’d actually react and respond to this kind of situation. So while you may think that you’d find a way to soldier on and not have this affect you in too much of a negative way, if you do find that you’re having a hard time with this, know that your emotions are completely valid.
While you may not have lived with your parents for years at this point, the shock of having your parents get divorced can hit adults just as hard as it does kids. So if you find yourself feeling very lost, confused, disoriented, and sad, know that this is completely normal, even for an adult.
Seek Out Therapy
If you don’t know of anyone who’s also had their parents get divorced when they were in adulthood, you might feel like you don’t have anyone in your life that you can really reach out to who will understand what you’re going through.
Whether or not this is the case, seeking out therapy and finding a professional who can help you understand what you’re going through and help you find healthy ways to accept it can be invaluable to you. Especially if you’ve been to therapy before, meeting back up with your therapist could be a wise idea at this juncture in your life.
Be Careful About Asking “Why”
When you haven’t been living with your parents, their divorce could seem sudden to you. If this happens, you might feel like you want to ask them what happened and why they decided to get divorced now, especially if they are getting much older.
While it’s normal to want to understand what happened and why, you should be very careful about asking these kinds of questions. Along with it not really being your business, you may get answers that you don’t like or didn’t want to hear.
If you’ve just found out that your elderly parents are going to be getting a divorce, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you navigate this new territory.
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