Children of divorced parents, what do you wish your parents had done differently?

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Children of divorced parents, what do you wish your parents had done differently?

Comments

  1. Former-Ice1295 Avatar

    Realized that they still had to be parents.

  2. StrawberryFields3729 Avatar

    Got divorced sooner. Watched them fight non stop and argue at such a young age right into my early teens.

  3. CakesForLife Avatar

    Never got together to begin with.

  4. dminiman Avatar

    gonna sound like an asshole here, but divorced earlier. they stayed together because my siblings were young and they wanted to wait till they were grown enough to understand and not harbor any ill feelings, but in the end it made them miserable

  5. eredria Avatar

    Parent and “step-father,” but, divorced sooner. He was abusive. She’s insane. I love all of my siblings, and I’m glad they’re here, but if their parents had any sense, they would have divorced after the first kid when the abuse started and not put six kids through hell for over ten years.

  6. EmbarrassedClick890 Avatar

    Get the hint after the first time they split that things aren’t gonna work out. But instead have two more kids.

  7. Wintermoon54 Avatar

    I’m Genx X and Daddy was Silent while Mom was a Boomer. (A nice one though). Because of their views and stuff they tried to stay together for my sake, but not only were they miserable, I was too because I could tell how they felt about each other. Later on they did finally divorce and my Dad married my stepmother and they had my sister. My stepmother is NOT a good person but he stayed with her until he passed away because that’s what he thought was the right thing to do. What me and my sister learned from these marriages was (subconsciously I’m sure) that you take what you get and even if you can’t stand someone it’s better than being alone. An awful lesson.

  8. Reach-Calm Avatar

    Manage a blended family – if they remarry to someone who also has kids. kids only listen to their own parent means conflicts never get solved, rules enforced unequally, always feels like never get treated fairly

  9. Sixhaunt Avatar

    not using their gender and joining a religion just to go for full custody despite being a shitty parent

  10. Dancing-Dragonflies Avatar

    Stayed divorced. They married and divorced each other a total of 3 times (1 was considered a common law marriage.) My childhood was very chaotic to say the least, and my dad still apologizes for that whole mess.

  11. thatpunkyrat Avatar

    Not forced me to be their marriage therapist. It started when I was around 8 or 9. They were officially divorced when I was 20. Even now, they (mostly my mom, though) use me as a messenger.

  12. Certain-Tonight-6628 Avatar

    Agreed on sole custody. I felt my childhood weekends were a prison of sitting in my angry father’s house because he got weekends.

  13. GenericNerdGirl Avatar

    I wish they didn’t live across the continent from each other from then on. I went from seeing my dad all the time, to being lucky to see him for vacations if the money worked out. And when I moved in with him, I saw my mom even less than that. Is it Dad’s fault for moving first? Or Mom’s fault for refusing to move for the sake of us kids despite our opinions on the matter? Really, it doesn’t matter. The consequence still sucked, for all of us.

  14. RetroactiveRecursion Avatar

    Not be self-absorbed asses.

  15. Impossible_Radio4257 Avatar

    I wish they’d never met

  16. BestWestEnder Avatar

    Not exposed my siblings and I to adult problems, and not talked negatively about the other parent and step parents to us.

  17. P1nkp0nyclurb Avatar

    Gotten divorced sooner. Also, would have been nice if they didn’t jump into dating like 1 month after they separated. That shit does a number on kids who are just trying to adjust and cope with their entire home life being upended. For the love of god, if you’re separating and have children, focus on your children and not on how quickly you can meet someone new.

  18. One-Hat-9887 Avatar

    Not gotten remarried to each other 🤣

  19. nuggie_vw Avatar

    My mother with 2 young children, cheated on my father. My father beat her over it. My mother divorced my father over that. Then my mother proceeds to marry my stepfather who beated her over small things like pizza. Part of me feels sorry for her but it’s also of her own doing? I recently said “I thought you left our father because he beat you?!” and she’s like “I did! That is why I left him!!!” and I was like looking at my stepdad and then her and I was like “? you probably should’ve just stayed with Dad if thats the case?” I don’t get it. Ruin a family to jump right in a situation thats even worse. Bizzaro world.

  20. TheRealQubes Avatar

    Wish my father would have had any lasting interest to be part of his kids’ lives, or his grandkids, but that was always a fantasy, so I wish mom would’ve left him on the wedding night or before (where she would say he first began disrespecting her in front of others while drunk). She liked looking past alcoholism if they were good looking and affectionate otherwise. If they could ask 25 year old me whether I should be conceived I’d have told them both to fuck straight off in opposite directions from each other.

  21. Annual-Net-4283 Avatar

    I wish they hadn’t talked so badly about each other, no matter how well earned it was, and that they hadn’t put so many adult choices onto me as a very young child. Sometimes I wish I had made other choices and feel guilty over things that aren’t my fault and should never have been put on me to choose.

  22. sampai91 Avatar

    I wished they divorced sooner. They both told me they waited until I was out of high school to get divorced. Half of my senior year I lived with my sister because they fought so much. I wish they could have just gotten it over with and been truthful to me. I was so naive for so long, I still have trust issues.

  23. Maninaboxx2 Avatar
  24. BettySwollocks45 Avatar

    Spared the rod and spoiled their children.

  25. QuestionSign Avatar

    Grown tf up. Were pieces of shit together and didn’t fucking learn when apart.

    Dumb fucks.

  26. AttemptingToGeek Avatar

    My parents got divorced and they constantly fought through us kids. “Tell your father he needs to pay for your sports”. “Tell your mother she has to switch weekends “. It was totally normal for us and I don’t remember them speaking civilly with each other until I was in my 20’s. I was amazed when I later met divorced couples that actually spoke to each other and discussed things.

  27. verifiedgnome Avatar

    Actually get divorced and not take 7 years to finalize it. Not spend the money intended for our education on lawyers.

    Not rip my younger brother away from the help he really needed. Looking at you, dad.

    Not talk shit about each other mom. Again dad, what the hell?

  28. Fun_in_Space Avatar

    Mom shouldn’t have had any kids, if all she wanted was a son.

  29. LizardPossum Avatar

    If my parents had divorced a few years sooner it would solve every single one of my problems because I wouldn’t be here.

  30. Electronic_Bass2856 Avatar

    Nothing. They got divorced and the relationship was always amicable.

  31. hearmequack Avatar

    Divorced earlier, and not gotten remarried (to each other) only to divorce again. Like the two of you do not like each other. Why even go through it?

  32. Restless-J-Con22 Avatar

    No one has ever asked me that before 

  33. taniamorse85 Avatar

    I wish Mom had seen the red flags before they got married and called it off.

  34. deathbykoolaidman Avatar

    My parents REALLY didn’t like each other after the split, my mother especially. She’d make me feel bad every time I went to see my father and be passive aggressive when I got back. She also would shit talk him wildly all of the time.

  35. splamo77 Avatar

    They could have been fair and still respectful of one another for the sake of the kids.

  36. FooFighter007 Avatar

    Loved me more than they hated each other 🙃

  37. gnashingspirit Avatar

    I wish they had kids because they wanted kids. It always felt like we were an item on their life to-do list. When they divorced they both didn’t give a rat ass what happened to me and my sister. They were only ever focussed on themselves. They felt they were stuck with us until we turned 18. Their idea of parenting was that it ended when we turned 18. No obligation to help, to assist, or anything after that.

    They were terrible people from good families.

  38. IntrepidNectarine8 Avatar

    Gotten divorced as soon as they felt the first bits of resentment seeping in. It was definitely resentment that ruined my parents’ marriage.