Home Will Never Be the Same Again

A Guide for Adult Children of Gray Divorce

Carol R. Hughes, Bruce R. Fredenburg

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538135310
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Mental Health & Wellbeing

Adult children are often overlooked and forgotten when their parents divorce later in life, but in these pages they will find comfort and understanding for the many feelings, frustrations, and challenges they face.

For more than two decades, a silent revolution has been occurring and creating a seismic shift in the American family and families in other countries. It has been unfolding without much comment, and its effects are being felt across three to four generations: more couples are divorcing later in life. Called the "gray divorce revolution," the cultural phenomenon describes couples who divorce after the age of 50.

Overlooked in the issues that affect couples divorcing later in in life are the adult children of divorcing parents. Their voices open this book, and they are the voices of men and women, 18 to 50 years old. Some of them are single; some are married. Some have children of their own. All of them are in different stages of shock, fear, and sudden, dramatic change.

In Home Will Never Be the Same: A Guide for Adult Children of Gray Divorce, Carol Hughes and Bruce Fredenburg share their deep understanding gained during the innumerable hours they have spent with these women and men in their clinical practices. The result is a valuable resource for these too often forgotten adult children, many of whom find that, whenever they express their feelings and experiences, the most important people in their lives frequently ignore and dismiss them.

As the divorce rate for older adults soars, so too does the number of adult children who are experiencing parental divorce. Yet, these adult children frequently say that they are the only ones who are aware of what they are going through, no one understands what they are experiencing, and they feel painfully alone.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Divorce Is a Never-Ending Chain of Events
• It’s All About the Relationships
• Attachment and Abandonment
• Shock and Then Grieving
• Stages of Adult Development
• Communication
• Boundaries
• Changing Family Roles and Rules
• Relationships with Siblings, Extended Family, Friends, and Community
• Family Traditions and Rituals
• Parental Dating, Repartnering, and Remarriage
• How Parents of Gray Divorce Can Help Their Adult Children
• Taking the War Out of Our Words
• There Is Hope and Healing
• Additional Resources
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Authors