Thanks, Mom and Dad

In 2007, studies showed that the divorce rate in the United States was the lowest it had been since the 1970's at a rate of 3.6 divorces for every 1,000 people. While that may seem like a good thing, when you put it into perspective, the meaning of marriage seems to be much less than it was 30 years ago. The number of unmarried parents has increased exponentially in the past decade. So when unmarried parents split, the effect is pretty much the same on the child as a divorce, regardless of the fact that there is no ring on the finger. That statistic is often left out of these studies.

Now, I don't mean to go all CNN on you, but the past few months have really proven to me how bad this problem is. In our group of Junior Miss girls, 9 out of the 16 participates came from divorced families. Because of this, we had to completely restructure the auditorium seating because "the divorced" couldn't handle sitting a few seats apart. We even had one dad say that he wouldn't attend if he had to sit in the same section as his ex. I felt like screaming, "grow the hell up!" For God's sake, it's a time that they should be so exceptionally proud of their daughter, and they can't get over the fact that things didn't work out. Granted, I don't know the whole story, but adults should be mature enough to last a few hours - 3 at most - in a dark auditorium where speaking is not required. But they still couldn't handle sitting 5 seats away.
A) Sad. B) Pathetic. C) Embarrassing. D) All of the above.

Then, today, I get a call from a mom who is crying over the phone because she wasn't told anything about the Junior Miss program and didn't even know her daughter was participating. Now, she wants me to inform her of anything that her daughter should be involved in from here on out.
A) Inappropriate. B) Awkward. C) Embarrassing. D) All of the above.

Why can't adults see how much their actions affect their kids? Some of the girls even talked about their parents' divorces in their interviews and you could just see how hard it was for them to not want to either stand up and scream or cry their eyes out. I commend them for having the courage to move on and be outstanding young women.

Divorce is becoming such a trend in today's society. I'm not saying that divorce is a horrible thing that no one should consider. I have family members who have divorced, friends from divorced families and I know some people that are in the middle of a divorce right now. Sometimes it's necessary. Sad, but true. I do, however, think that those who choose to take that path should consider who it's affecting and be mature enough to make sure that it doesn't jeopardize what relationships they do still have. Kudos to anyone who has achieved this.

On that note, thanks, Mom and Dad. Thanks for finding each other and making all the right choices to get to where you are right now. I honestly don't know what I would do if one of them came to me and said, "we're splitting up." Thankfully, I don't ever have to worry about that. They put up with each other's bad hair days, lack of fashion, smelly morning breath and horrible taste in movies because they love each other unconditionally. I am a very lucky girl to have them.

That's all for the love and stuff.