"What Really Matters"

Mireya Navarro of the New York Times writes about Ina Chadwick and the tough time she is going through. However, it is not her own heartache, it's her daughter's. “You live through your child’s divorce,” said Ms. Chadwick. You grow very close to both sides of the family. You build a lifetime bond that you think will last forever. "Marsha Temlock, a retired family counselor in Westport, Conn., said her initial reaction to the divorce announcement of one of her two sons five years ago was, how could you divorce this wonderful girl? For months she fielded calls from the son and the daughter-in-law like a “switchboard operator,” she said, letting their divorce monopolize her life." Ms. Temlock eventually let go, but for Ms. Chadwick it was not that easy.

According to Andrew Cherlin, "Parents today are not only more involved in their adult children’s lives but they are also living longer and more active lives. "It’s much more common for adult children to have their parents still living when they divorce.” As you grow older, certain situations tend to affect people in a more personal way, allowing for it to bother them for a while. Aside from it being tough on the parents, they still find a way to help out their children. Ms. Chadwick and her second husband took out a reasonable sized loan to help their daughter and two sons keep their house. They did have lifetime plans, but they had to put them on hold to help their daughter. They said it was worth helping out their family. At the end of the day, it's family who matters the most!

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