Navigating Divorce After 50: 5 Tips to Help You Cope

How do you feel when you’ve crossed the mid-line of life and find yourself facing something you never dreamed you would face at this age: divorce?

If you've been unhappy in your marriage for years, and can’t imagine facing your spouse 24/7 when you retire, you may feel strangely excited at the prospect of starting a new life.?But, if you assumed that you were about to settle comfortably into old age with your spouse, only to be blindsided when your spouse announced that s/he wanted a divorce, you probably felt like you just got sucker-punched!?

Either way, surviving a divorce after 50 presents a host of challenges that divorce at a younger age does not.

Why is Getting a Divorce After 50 So Different?

While some might argue that divorce is divorce, divorcing later in life (i.e. getting what's known as a "gray divorce ") presents unique challenges.

You and your spouse don’t just have years of history together – you have decades! Your family, friends, and neighbors, all know you and your spouse as “a couple.” Facing those people as someone who is “newly single” can be terrifying!

You have no idea what you are supposed to do, or how you are supposed to act. You're not even sure who you are.?For the last 20 - 30+ years, you have thought of yourself as a married person: a husband, a wife. Your family was whole. Now, all of that is?gone.

Your entire identity has just been destroyed.

You also have to deal with your kids.

Adult Children of Divorce

While many people assume that by divorcing later in life they will at least be saving their children from suffering, sadly, that is not always true.?

Just because your children happen to be adults when you get divorced does not mean that they won’t be affected by your divorce.?On the contrary, ... Read More ?