There are many consequences of divorce.  They seem to fall into several categories.

Emotional fallout:  There are emotional consequences for everyone involved in divorce, despite stereotypes that seem to suggest men go on to the next “trophy wife” and the ex-wife languishes in despair.  Divorce represents the failure or death of a relationship. A person experiences the same stages of grief that they would experience at the death of a loved one.  It is wise to allow yourself to go through the grieving process before entering into another relationship.  Children suffer the most from divorce, especially if the father becomes an absentee parent after the divorce.  Incidents of teen suicide, pregnancy, drug addiction, and problems in school are higher in children of divorce.  It is also shown that children of divorce are more likely to divorce themselves because they do not have faith in the stability of marriage.

Financial:  Financially there is a gender gap in divorce.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average woman’s family income drops by thirty-seven percent after divorce, while men’s financial picture appears to improve by ten percent after divorce. This may be due in part by the difficulty experienced in collecting child support when women are the custodial parent, and the fact that there is still a gender gap between the pay scales in women.

There are those who believe that experiencing divorce will make you better at marriage the second time around.  This assumes that one of the consequences of divorce will be that people will learn from their mistakes and not make the same ones the second time.  This presumption also assumes that people take time to understand what their mistakes were the first time they married.  Statistics show that the divorce rate for couples marrying the second time are higher than those for first marriages. It continues to increase to about seventy percent for third and fourth marriages.  Practice does not make you perfect when it comes to divorce.

The consequences of divorce—this gloom and doom about divorce—makes you think that no one should get divorced.  If two people cannot live together, staying together does not benefit anyone.  The solution may be that people have to more careful about rushing into marriage; and if they do get married, they need to make sure they have thought long and hard before they bring children into the marriage.