My divorced parents are dating

My mom, who was 29 at the time, took one look at him and started running — literally running — away.Had her aunt not lassoed her back and gotten her to go on the date, I wouldn’t be here today.

Measuring the success of a marriage on a binary system of whether it ended in divorce or not doesn’t do the complexity of relationships much justice.

And my parents wouldn’t have an almost 30-year marriage. In fact, considering that the divorce rate hovers at around 50% (and is higher for second and third marriages), people assume that if your parents are still together, you must have the secret to a good relationship embedded in your DNA.

But just like any relationship spanning 30 years, my parents have had conflicts to which, inevitably, I’ve been witness.

The parent can explain that people adjust differently, and that it is time for him or her to meet and go out with new people, even though the other parent may not be ready to begin another relationship. Children may feel the parent-child relationship doesn’t give parents the opportunity to do all the activities that adults like to do.

It’s important to keep on reminding children that friends and new partners do not replace the love between a parent and a child. Children may feel their parents may get back together again.

For example, studies have found that children who grew up in abusive households have about a 30% chance of becoming abusive parents themselves.