Why It’s OK to Divorce Your Family
How to decide if it’s time to break ties with your family members.
We all have our own ideas of the “perfect family”. Maybe it’s the Cleavers or the Bradys or the Father Knows Best family (am I aging myself here?).
The reality of it is, most of our families don’t measure up to those impossible standards.
Family can be difficult, we all get that. Some family relationships take a lot of work, or a lot of gritting your teeth, or a lot of self-care to navigate. But sometimes you have a family relationship that is beyond repair.
Maybe it’s a parent with severe alcoholism or a sibling with mental illness. Maybe it’s a family member who has done something so awful, there’s no coming back from that. What do you do then?
Sometimes your best option is to sever the relationship and divorce your family member.
For many of us, this can be one of the hardest decisions we ever make. It comes with judgment from all sides.
You may hear things like “It’s terrible that your father abused you, but I’m sure he loves you in his own way”, or “No matter what your mom did, she’s old now and you owe it to her to help her out”, or “Your daughter has a drug problem, but you’re still her mom”.
