How will divorce affect my children?
Parents have to consider that developmentally, whatever age a child is, they are forming very important concepts and ideas about; what is a mother, what is a father, what, who are the grandparents, who am I? A child is answering the question of who am I? And they get the answer from contact with both sides of their family. They have a heritage that has come to them from the father, from the mother, and they need to be exposed to what their heritage is. And as an unfortunate result is that one parent thinks, 'I'm the best parent and therefore you can't see your child.' This is when things really get to be a serious problem. If one person is seriously out of control and is absolutely without a question inappropriate, then that's another matter. But very few times is that the case. So the child really needs two parents. And the idea that a single mother can raise children and the child just turn out okay, there's overwhelming statistics that children who don't have a father in their lives do not turn out well. Statistically the social behaviors that are dysfunctional of premature pregnancy or adolescent pregnancy, crime, drugs, dropping out of school, all manner of adjustment problems, psychological adjustment problems, there's a very high percentage of those kids that don't have a father. The children who have the good fortune of having the guidance of a father and we know they turn out better overall.
