Spoiled Children of Divorce

Here’s a link to a special Holiday Story called “Unaccompanied Minors” written by Susan Burton from her website.  http://www.susanburton.net/unaccompanied_minors/.

It’s about being a kid from a divorced family and having to travel between Mom and Dad’s house during the Holidays.  I believe it was originally broadcast over NPR and then made into a movie.  So grap the popcorn, and Mom, or Dad, whichever one you’re with.  Warning about something that all kids from Divorce know but I’ll say it out loud because I’m feeling generous:  If you make them feel guilty they’ll accuse you of being manipulative (and so will the shrinks).

Elizabeth Marquardt talks about the impact that seeing this movie had on her in her book Between Two Worlds. She was around 2 years old when her parents split so this means that she spent 16 Christmases like this. I was 14 when my parents split and they stayed in the same town.  Two sets of dysfunctional families in one day is pretty intense as well.