One potential reason for divorce is when parents become empty nesters. They may have spent the last 20 to 30 years raising children. But the final child has moved out of the house and only the parents are left. In some cases, a divorce follows.
This can be surprising to people who know the couple, however. They’ve been together for decades. They seemed to work well together when they were raising their children. Why would those children moving out cause them to get a divorce? Here are two potential reasons that could impact these cases.
Staying together for the children
First, some couples admit that they never thought their marriage was perfect. They weren’t necessarily happy while they were married. But they stayed together because they were working together to raise their children. Now that that stage of their life is over, they want to consider what would make them happiest moving forward.
The children were a distraction
In other cases, the couple didn’t even realize their marriage was having problems. Maybe the two of them haven’t really felt close in years. Maybe they’ve had a lot of minor disagreements. Raising children takes a lot of time and energy, and that can distract the parents from these issues within their marriage. Once the final child moves out, the marital issues become much more obvious.
Getting divorced at this age is simpler in some ways because you don’t have to think about child custody. However, it can be very complicated when considering how to divide your assets. Take the time to carefully consider all of your legal options.