Welcome to another episode of the Divorce Survival Guide podcast, where we have real, honest, smart, and sometimes even hilarious conversations about co-parenting, separation, and divorce, and all that goes along with that.

I'm Kate Anthony, your Divorce Survival Guide, and all that goes along with that. I'm Kate Anthony,

your divorce survival guide, and all-around expert in all things divorce. And today we're

going to talk about should you stay in your marriage for your children. So one of the most common reasons people stay together is for their children, right?

They think that it would be better for their kids to stay together at least till they're 18, right?

That's the, that's sort of the cutoff. When they leave, then go to college. Then we can get divorced.

And frankly, depending on your unique situation, this might be a great reason to stay together.

It also might be the worst reason in the world.

Because we are told over and over again in our society that we have to stay for our children, that children that

come from, quote, broken homes, I hate that term so much, they do less well in school, they're

damaged, they grow up to have poor coping and relationship skills, we're told that they become

alcoholics and drug addicts, right? So we try and we try harder and we try harder

and we try harder. We bend ourselves into pretzels trying to make this square peg fit into that round

hole come hell or high water because if we don't, then our children will suffer and we will have

failed.

I call bullshit.

I left my marriage for my son because what my ex and I were modeling to our son

wasn't what I wanted him to grow up to have for himself.

While I had this vision of myself as being this strong and powerful woman,

that wasn't based on any kind of reality.

This wasn't who I was actually being outwardly.

I had this sense of myself inwardly that I was all this powerhouse shit.

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