Measuring the success of a marriage on a binary system of whether it ended in divorce or not doesn’t do the complexity of relationships much justice. When children are involved, a marriage stops being something that impacts the couple only and becomes the blueprint that the children will follow in their own relationships. Modeling good behavior (rather than saying, for example, to act maturely and rationally) is one of the most long-lasting lessons a couple can teach through their marriage.
This makes me wonder whether it’s true that we inevitably copy our past. Are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes, have the same fights and marry the same people as our parents? And if our parents are divorced, does this mean that we’re destined for the same fate?
The interplay of nature and nurture when it comes to mimicking behavior is really important. For example, studies have found that children who grew up in abusive households have about a 30% chance of becoming abusive parents themselves. Children of alcoholics are four times more likely to become alcoholics. Children of smokers are much more likely to smoke, too. Sure, some of these behaviors have genetic ties — you may be predisposed to addiction, for example. But so much is dependent upon the behavior we witness from the adults in our lives and how it molds us.
Our parents’ systems of belief are also tremendously of consequence: More than half of young adults tend to believe in the same religion as their parents and hold their parents’ political affiliations. Mimicking the adults you’re close to doesn’t start in adulthood but much, much earlier.
The implications for relationships are tremendous. Surprisingly, though, children from high conflict yet non-divorced families are the most likely to divorce as adults.
This is interesting because we often hear that parents stay together “for the sake of the children.” While it’s certainly beneficial for divorced partners to continue co-parenting civilly, this doesn’t necessitate martyrdom — making oneself miserable so that the kids can have the now-debunked benefit of coming from a non-divorced family.
Divorce can sometimes come as a happy reprieve from witnessing your parents’ unhealthy behavior, therefore making it less likely that you’ll repeat it in the future. Divorce is only the coup de grâce to a chapter of unhappiness. Instead of fearing it, we should fear inheriting the unhealthy patterns we witnessed in our own childhoods.
You realize this all sounds like we’ll be turning into terrifying caricatures of our parents in the future, but it’s not quite that straightforward. If you’re afraid of inheriting your mother’s hardheadedness or your dad’s knack for picking fights at the most inopportune time, you’ve already taken a positive step forward.
Being aware (and therefore afraid) of repeating unhealthy behavior means you’re much less likely to do just that. We’re not all part of an Oedipal prophecy, stuck on a track and unable to control our futures. A little bit of awareness and introspection goes a long way, and can help you avoid relationship potholes.