Laws Should Be Enacted To Make Divorce Harder To Obtain.
Everyday around 2,622 couples get a divorce. Should there be laws enacted to lower that number? I'm going through a separation with my parents and I disagree with divorce except for under certain circumstances. I think laws should be put into place to make divorce harder to apply for and go through with, because a lot of divorces can be prevented, children are severely affected, and more and more couples are changing their minds after filing for divorce.
William J. Doherty states "Contrary to popular belief, only a minority of divorcing couples experience high conflict and abuse during their marriage and 65 percent of divorces occur between couples who have drifted apart and low levels of conflict(called average divorces) "(1) These "average " divorces can be prevented and are unnecessary if couples have just drifted apart. There are many ways to get back together and bond again. You say "I do " under the law and nowhere does it say "when drifting apart, just divorce! " That's one reason laws should be enacted to make divorce harder to obtain.
Another reason laws should be put into place to make divorce harder to finalize is that children are severely affected. Studies show that kids that had parents fighting or thinking about divorce were 3-4 points behind students whose parents were happily married on standardized tests. Kids whose parents were recently divorced were 7-10 points lower than kids in two parent homes where the parents got along, and the scores decreased as the child went through school. Children with divorced parents are 5 times more likely to experience anxiety and social issues than kids with married parents. (Olson 2).
The last reason divorce laws should be put in place is because more and more couples are changing their minds, even after filing for divorce. 60% of people who have filed for divorce reported being uncertain if it was the right thing to do, and in 40% of couples filing for divorce both partners said they wanted to reconcile and in 68% of couple filing for divorce one partner said they wanted to fix things.
