Why is there a need to refer to one’s self as divorced instead of single after the end of a marriage and people ask your status ? Surely you’re single ?
Also, as there’s nearly always a ‘Divorced’ box on most forms in regards to status, is there any legal requirement in having to refer to yourself as such ?
I can understand in regards to dating, but not in day-to-day interactions.
Comments
Never, because they aren’t mutually exclusive. Both describe two different things.
You may have been married for six years but you will be devorced for the rest of your life.
Legally, people who are divorced can still have obligations to the former spouse, so it is not the same as never having married. Socially, “single” means “available” and might include divorced people, but it’s a good idea to be clear—in part because some people don’t believe in divorce and won’t really consider you available. It’s also normal to retain social ties to your former in-laws.
There are sometimes differences.
Someone paying or receiving alimony is still legally connected to that other person. They need to take that into account financially when applying for jobs, apartments, loans.
If there have been any name changes, jointly held property or loans, if there are still joint interests preserved like with pensions or life insurance, if there are family estates to be settled, lawsuits against a homeowner’s policy or jointly held business – then there still may be some legal issues that need to be explained to an employer or even a potential partner.
Someone who is still dealing with property division is still going to be dealing with phone calls and possibly visits from the former spouse. This is something that a dating partner may need to contend with at some point.
They are seperate things. You can be both divorced and seeing someone, hence divorced but not single. You can also be divorced AND single. They’re two binary options on separate scales, you just sometimes imply one through the other.
Whenever the divorced decides to
I’d say divorced should be used if there’s kids in the picture so one’s permanently tied to their ex while single would be fine if there were no kids or anything tethering a person to ex.
Administratively, “single” means “never married”. You can be in a committed long-term relationship and still legally be “single” (assuming you don’t automatically become a “common law spouse” in your jurisdiction and circumstances).
Kind of never.
I feel as though “divorced” implies there’s still some aspect of the marriage impacting who that person is and their life. It might be something big like kids or alimony payments, or just in a smaller sense that they’re dealing with emotional baggage from the former marriage.
That second part is probably why so few people “revert” to calling themselves single. For the vast majority of people being married, and then having that marriage end, impacts who they are forever. It redefines them, to the point that they never think of themselves as just “single”.
Legally speaking, not sure. However, when I left my ex, she was dead to me. I don’t consider myself divorced any more.
You’re not single if you’re paying alimony or equalization payments lol
I genuinely don’t understand why so many forms need this information. My tax form, my employer for my tax form, and my insurance if I have a child on multiple policies. Otherwise- it should not matter if I am married, single, or divorced.
Divorced is different than single
Single implies a person has never been married
Divorced means someone took the leap but possibly chose incorrectly
For legal or administrative purposes, when you no longer have legal ties to your ex. “Legal ties” includes stuff like child support, alimony, custody sharing, or property that you still own together. “Divorced” indicates that you’re no longer married, but you still have legal obligations that may impact your ability to borrow money, move to a new location, etc.
For social purposes, as soon as the divorce is finalized. If you’re dating, you should tell your partner about any aspect of your former marriage that might impact your relationship – kids, custody/visitation agreements, financial obligations that limit your ability to support a new family, and so on. But you don’t need to describe yourself as a divorcée on Tinder.
Because divorced means you’ve been married before and single means you’ve never been married aka never made a promise that wasn’t kept.. personally I’d like to know if someone was married at one point bc now I know I Ned to find out exactly what happened before I marry that person. Marriage is to death so unless your spouse died then to me your a bad decision maker
Never. This bothered me a lot when I first got divorced over a decade ago.
Now the only time it bothers me is when online forms for my child assume that my ex is somehow related to my kid and won’t let me move forward with completing the form until I provide more, completely irrelavent to our situation information. There is no relationship, no custody agreement, nothing; my ex probably doesn’t even know about said kid, since we were divorced over five years before kid came along.
If you have kids then you never revert as long as your kids are alive
When does second hand become new again?
Never and after a while at the same time.
Once you get a divorce, you’ll need to tell any and all persons you want a long term relationship with about it… in detail.
I don’t file taxes as “divorced”
As far as filling out forms are concerned, it has historically been more important for women than men to clarify whether they’re divorced or have always been single, especially if they have kids.
It’s getting more outdated though and I don’t see it on forms very often. It can matter sometimes in employment or dating situations, for example, because people sometimes have co-parenting relationships or it might be relevant to why they’re older and not in a committed relationship (again, moreso for women).
Typically at the start of the next fiscal year. So, the year you get divorced, your taxes would be filed as divorced. The following year, you would be single.
At the same time a mother, whose child has passed away, reverts back to being a virgin.
As far as I know there’s no legal bearing on how you wish to say it. Technically divorced means you are single. However if you are meeting someone and say you are single but later disclose you are divorced that would be a bit of a red flag as the other party would wonder why you hid it…
I refuse to answer on forms where it doesn’t make a difference. I find it beyond antiquated.
When you’re ready to mingle
Legally never. Doing all my dad’s post death probate stuff I needed his and my mother’s divorce date and location even though it’s been 30 years
I’m from Brazil. When you marry there, your birth certificate is replaced by your marriage certificate. If you divorce, it then gets replaced by the divorce certificate. If you are divorced you will stay like that until you marry again. If you die, it will say you were divorced.
If you get divorced, you are “Divorced”. Once you get into a new relationship and then break up, you are now “Single”. I think that’s what makes the most sense.
Interesting because I can understand it in regards to forms and important documents to distinguish between the statuses for whatever reason they need it, but in regards to dating, single should be enough until there’s someone serious enough to share more of your past with a little.
That’s like asking, ‘When does being celibate revert back to being a virgin?”
For the most part, divorced will always be divorced.
The exception is when “single” is being used to mean “available for a romantic relationship” instead of the person’s legal relationship status.
In that specific context, most people will call divorced people “single”. And call people in a committed-but-not-married relationship as “not single”.
Intuitively, i feel like if you have no obligations based on the past relationship you’re single again. No more alimony paid or received, no minor children, no property in common.
Also, people with kids are not really single.
In my intuition. For a legal answer check the form you’re filling
honestly it reverts the second you stop angrily muttering their name while doing dishes
I never referred to or even thought of myself as status: divorced.
As soon as we separated I was single. Even before we divorced
The fact that I was married before seemed neither here nor there