Throughout the semester, I have been very excited about this paper and jumped at the opportunity to interview my older sister, Michelle. Our family is a little unconventional, but I would not change it for the world. My sister and I both have the same father, but different mothers due to divorce and remarriage. Interestingly enough, my sister is thirteen years older than me, causing us to spend most of our lives at different points and milestones. Within recent years, we have become extremely close and this interview allowed for me to get a better understanding of her life.
Michelle has been happily married to her husband, Michael, for 10 years and she refers to him several times throughout the interview. She is 34 years …show more content…
Because she was so young, she said that she didn’t really know any different. She still remembers her parents sitting her down and telling her that they were separating. To this day, she has no real recollection of her parents ever being together. She said that her memory revolves mainly around the “after.” Her husband’s parents also had a divorce, and he also remembers a lot of his “after.” She found that their experiences shaped their idea of marriage and goals for parenting. She then gave me details about both of their divorce experiences, stating that they were handled somewhat …show more content…
Even though their parents handled their divorces differently, she believes that their experiences affected her and Mike in both little and big ways. She said, “We are by no means perfect. We carry a lot of our baggage from our experiences with us. For example, it is so important to me to be home with my children because I feel like I missed out on that experience. I always had to go to friends’ houses after school until my mom got home from work. On the other hand, Mike spent so much time watching his parents fight about money post-divorce that being financially sound is ridiculously important to him.”
She made it evident that living through divorce makes you want to avoid having one at all costs. She and Mike speak fairly often about their marriage, marriage in general, and how to be successful in it. She said that it is difficult when you don’t grow up with a model of what a healthy marriage looks like, but that it is certainly not