Another study is out indicating that divorce doesn’t necessarily make you happier.
Interesting.
Having been through a divorce myself, I wouldn’t argue one way or the other on the concept of divorce — always the wrong thing to do, or always the right thing. I think the relative ease of divorce these days means that it’s pursued as an option far too easily, especially in cases where children are involved. The idea that “you make me happy, so let’s get married” has translated into “you make me unhappy, so let’s get divorced,” as if the only idea behind marriage is to be personally happy (it’s not).
By the same token, one reason why divorce laws were liberalized in the first place is that they were too often a weapon to keep people in bad relationships long beyond when they should have been.
I’m glad I divorced. I’m glad it was as relatively simple as it was when I did.
By the same token, I’m glad it wasn’t the first option I thought of when things got rocky in my first marriage, because commitment should mean more than that. And, as this study indicates, sometimes the rough times aren’t nearly as rough or as permanent as they might seem right now.
(So why did Yahoo! put this in their “Oddly Enough” files?)