When the parents say "We are getting divorced"

by Nevena Dyakova, 14 years old

I'm thirteen and I live with my parents in Varna (Bulgaria). They are great and I love them very much. "Thank God", they have never said "We are getting divorced".
As a principle, I'm a person who tries to take things as they are but I'm really not sure how I would react in a situation like this. I have always thought divorce is something normal in one's daily life yet I have never considered the impact it has on people.
I don't know what it is to feel divided between your parents, to be confused and sad because the people you love and rely on won't be together anymore; but I had a friend with a problem like that. She hadn't shared this with anyone and was hiding the problem inside herself and I believe this influenced her state of mind. Yet, she managed to cope with it and I'm very happy about her. She managed to prove that
people can overcome their problems and go on with their lives.
A divorce is a difficult change not only for the children but for the parents as well. Nowadays people search for many different ways to solve their problems. One of them is the family mediation, which unfortunately isn't very popular in our country. In my opinion the society needs this type of help in order to improve the communications between people and to prevent the troubles and tears accompanying the serious problems like divorce.
The children are psychically vulnerable and it would be better if they are not burdened to a great extent with their parents' problems; they should not witness physical violence and harassment. This is why people have to find the most civilized way of separation, which would not leave negative memories for the children.
This is the purpose of the family mediation, which helps to solve in a normal way the human problems like divorce.