My parents divorced…WooHooo!!!
Divorce sucks and it tears apart families, we are all agreed, but not everyone wishes their parents had stayed married.
When I was a child I never wished my parents were still married, and as an adult I am grateful every day my parents divorced.
My sisters and I were raised by our Mother and this is our story…
We grew up on the poorer side of a middle class neighborhood; we did
not worry about being shot, jumped, or violated in any way when we
stepped past our front door. We freely rode our bicycles up and down any
street, we played on playgrounds that were well maintained, drug free
and free of questionable adults loitering about, and we swam at friends
pool’s or at the local community pool that had a high dive and full time
lifeguards.
We lived in apartments, rented houses, and with our
grandma. We cleaned house on Saturday’s, usually during commercial
breaks of whatever classic movie my mother was watching, and we always
finished with plenty of daylight to spare. Then there were the
Saturday’s when nothing got done, because we went to the beach instead!
New clothes were bought on sale before every new school year and
again at Christmas, but name brand labels were no where to be found,
except for the occasional pair of “please Mama please” sneakers…my
finest begging and pleading moment was in 1982 for the most awesome pair
of pink and black Vans ever!
Because money was tight…we did not
have soda in our house; it was always homemade iced tea. No chips or
store bought snacks; instead our mother would pop popcorn on the stove
like a pro. We ate a lot of hamburger and tuna helper, but our mother
always made sure we ate our veggies (real ones – no peas or corn for
us). Every Sunday we had a traditional southern dinner with our
grandparents. For a special treat we made homemade hot fudge sundaes;
generic vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and cocktail peanuts. And
last, but not least, was the special way every beach day ended…with a
Wendy’s Frosty for every one of us!
Our mother did the best she
could, sometimes working two jobs, to keep a roof over our heads and
food in our bellies. She loved us unconditionally, she had an easy way
about her, she always had a sense of humor, and she never brought a
strange man into our home. It was always the four of us, no one came
between us, but many friends were welcomed through the years to make
themselves at home. Everyone used my mother’s first name, not because
she wanted to seem cool, but because the last thing our mother wanted to
be was a stuffy parent that would make you feel awkward…our home was
warm, inviting, relaxed, and casual.
We struggled, we had a
part-time and eventually an absentee dad, we did not have everything
handed to us, we always had to be aware of money, we did not have the
perfect house, and we knew that no one was going to save us.
We
were rich in love, laughter and support, we learned how to work for what
we needed and wanted, we did not make our lives about material
possessions or worry about what others thought of what we did or did not
have, and we all learned by our mother’s example that sometimes making
the difficult decision is the only way to be free and the struggle if
often well worth the reward.
Our mother put her children first,
her career second, and her romantic relationship was private and not
part of our daily lives.
Our mother had a successful career and none of us have “mommy”
issues, her grandchildren and great grandchild think she is awesome, and
our mother is still the cheerful and optimistic flirt she has always
been.
Being happy and self confident is inevitable when you are blessed
with a Mother who loves you unconditionally, without judgment, and
supports and encourages you every step of the way…I would not trade my
family or the way I grew up with anyone in the world.
Our story would have been much darker and depressing had our parents
stayed married, and our family would be the very definition of
dysfunctional.
Divorce saved us, all of us.
Originally published on HubPages ~ October 2011