Divorce Study Ignores the Obvious by Kathleen Parker - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Let me say right off the bat, that I agree with Ms. Parker's findings on the study in question because I am the product of a divorced household as well. I know the horrors of divorce and the ugly proceedings that follow it far too well and my life and personality have, without a doubt, been affected by my parents' divorce even though they refuse to acknowledge it.
      At the very start of the essay, we already see that Ms. Parker has taken the study information in a tongue in cheek sort of manner as she attributes the results to the latest “feel good” research designed to help depressed divorced women overcome their grief. Such a study she believes is required in order to feed a divorced woman's “need for self-deception” owing to the fact that 6 out of 10 marriages at the time were ending up in divorce. She cites that there was surely a “reason for the mess we are in” as she segues into the content of the study.
     Early in the article, Ms. Parker makes sure to establish that her opinions are based upon her experience of having divorced parents, 5 step-mothers, and her own divorce as well. That is why she believed that she was practically an expert on the effects of divorce on single women and children. It is this skepticism that fueled her belief that the study did not truly understand the situation that single divorced mothers and their children undergo.
     Ms. Parker, however, did not discount that the research may hold some merit when it comes to the acceptable reasons for divorce. (Parker, Kathleen “Divorce Study Ignores The Obvious”) These instances are:

1. Someone is beating someone else in the family;
2. someone is abusing substances, in which case they are probably beating someone else in the family;
3.  no children are involved. She then goes on to explain that unless one, two, or all situations exist within a family situation, then divorce is most definitely not a good idea. I find it disturbing though that Ms.Parker had no qualms about calling anybody who opposed what she said a liar. 

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