Divorce has become a common thing among children in the United States. Whether parents and caregivers realize it or not, when parents are going through a divorce no matter how old their children are it effects them. A friend of mine is currently separated from his wife. He spends a lot of time at my house with my husband and his oldest daughter (who is three) knows that whenever he is not home he is at my house. Recently, we were at this friend's home for a birthday party. The child remarked to me, "Why can't I come to your house when Daddy comes over?" It broke my heart trying to explain that while she was always welcome at my home, Daddy sometimes needed to spend time at my house with his friend just like she had play dates with her friends. Well during this party, her mother and father were very obviously not getting along. In front of family and friends, the child said, "Stop fighting, I do not want to hear fighting anymore!" At that point, every adult in the room looked at each other and realized the severity and the impact of the situation between her parents. I expressed to my friend the importance of maintaining a civil relationship with his wife regardless of what happens and staying active in his child's life. Currently, he is living at my house, but everyday watches his daughter and makes a point to talk to her before she goes to bed.
There are a few families at my center that are from Ghana. I chose to research the stressors of children who live in Ghana. Child labor is the biggest issue I have found thus far in Ghana. Children often work in agricultural fields with little or no payment in order to contribute to providing for their family. The common cause for full time child labor in Ghana seems to be a lack of importance in education and because education is seemingly too costly. Research on child labor and why it is so common in Ghana has found that the education level of the father in particular has a impact on the families' decision to send their children to school. Recently, there has been an initiative to raise funds in order to lower the cost of schooling and reach out to the more rural areas to ensure education reaches all of Ghana's children.
Resource
Canagarajah, S., Coulombe, H. (1997). Child labor and schooling in Ghana. Work Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1844. Retrieved from http://ssrn.stanford.edu
2 comments:
I can only imagine what children go though when parents get divorced or when they just separate for a while. I'm sure it has a big impact on them especially when they are to young to understand and no one really think about how it may impact them.
Divorce always have effects on the children involved. It's hard for children to understand that sometimes mommies and daddies don't want to be together anymore and sometimes children blame themselves for the divorce. It's great to know that you gave your friend encouraging words to understand that no matter what is going on between him and his wife that it is most important for him to stay involved in his daughters life. The best thing that we can do as friends is to be supportive and offer words of encouragement and advice when needed, which you are already doing. Great Friend!!!
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