My Doomed Marriage: Leah McLaren on why divorce runs in the family

“Divorce is unsettling for children because it serves as a stark reminder that their parents, the all-knowing, larger-than-life deities who created the laws of the universe, are fundamentally without a plan. It shifts the emotional centre of family life from the child’s needs to the adults’, determining life’s logistics according to what’s most convenient for the parents rather than the children—an effect that lingers long after the papers have been signed and the lawyers’ fees paid up.”