The United States of America is one of the more prominent countries that legally have divorce and whose society accepts it. But at the same time, since it allows divorce, it is also prominent in being one of the leading countries with couples filing divorce. Maybe, instead of the Philippines thinking that having a divorce bill means moving on to greener pastures and “the 21st century”, we should learn from the mistakes and repercussions divorce has cause in their societies, more so their families.
Every year, over 1 million American children suffer from the divorce of their parents. What’s saddening is half of the those children born in 2000 expected that their parents would file for divorce before they turned 18 years old. Moreover, the Americans for Divorce Reform estimates that 40 or 50% of marriages end in divorce. This means that 1 out of 2 couples are likely to get divorced. This rate has come as a shock to America and has caused concern in political, social and religious circles in the country. Further statistics show that the divorce rate in America for the first marriage is 41%, the divorce rate for the second marriage is 60% while the divorce rate for third marriage is 73%. Clearly, the results show that divorce has caused a “trial and error” trend in Americans as divorce has become a way for them to try out a marriage, and if it does not work out, they can simply file for divorce and try their luck with another person again.
The Discovery Channel states that couples with children have a slightly—note, slightly—lower rate of divorce than childless couples as absence of children is one of the reasons for the failure of marriage. But why exactly has Uncle Sam’s several couples—a whooping 50%--resorted to divorce? Marriage101.org says that the answer lies in American belief, “freedom is one of the most important beliefs for America and nothing can replace it besides love. When they marry, they do not run for long love. If they think the love and family cannot offer their happiness and safety, they would choose to divorce.” Americans will not value family and/or children more than themselves because obviously, they are very individualistic. “That means they love freedom not stability. Their dreams are running for their own blessedness.”
So maybe, divorce is not for the Philippines because we think a great deal and have so much value for culture, tradition, religion and most especially—family and children.
Divorce has evidently torn up then fundamental unit of the American family, the American society. More and more Americans have broken homes, a single parent or even no parent, causing psychological, health and emotional problems, developing rebellious attitudes, performing poorly in academics—all because of America’s permit to divorce. We think that the United States is still a rich country, but until now it is still suffering from one of the worst recessions any other country has faced over history, thus 50% of the parents with children who are going through divorce move into poverty after the divorce.
And then again, maybe the Philippines should be better off without divorce because it is already an impoverish nation with millions of Filipinos suffering from no sufficient everyday provisions even if they are intact families.
More than thinking of the advantages and benefits divorce could have on couples like a sound mind and peacefulness from all the abuse and arguments, the consequences should be foreseen. Filipinos look up so much to the Americans but more than that, we should also learn from their mistakes—not make the same mistakes.
Sources:
http://www.aboutdivorce.org/us_divorce_rates.html
http://marriage101.org/divorce-rates-in-america/
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2000/06/The-Effects-of-Divorce-on-America
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