From couples mediation to family mediation, getting a divorce entails far more than many people realize. It’s an exhausting and even grueling process, and it’s more common here in the United States than many people realize. With more a divorce occurring every half of a minute here in the United States, there are more than two thousand and five hundred divorces taking place and becoming finalized each and every single day, to total to more than eight hundred thousand divorces becoming official over the course of a year in this country alone. In fact, there are many risk factors for divorce – and a relatively limited number of things (aside from simply working on your relationship, that is) that will alleviate those risk factors, at least statistically. Couples mediation can be either a last ditch attempt to save the marriage or else a way to divide up your assets and discuss the terms of the divorce as maturely and peacefully as possible.
If you have gotten married for the first time, your divorce rate sits at about forty four percent, meaning that of all the people who marry their first spouse, nearly half will get divorced at some point in the marriage. It is most common, however, to seek a divorce after about ten years or so of marriage, if it is a first marriage that we are talking about. If you decide to remarry, your chances of divorce rise with each subsequent spouse. Third marriages, for instance, have more than a seventy percent chance of ending in a divorce. Other risk factors include having daughters but no sons and smoking – but only if one half of the couple smokes and the other does not. Contrary to what most people think, living together before getting married does not increase or decrease your chances of eventually getting a divorce in any definable or relevant way.
But no matter why you’re getting a divorce, going through a couples mediation process is likely to be a good idea. A couples mediation process can help you to view things more objectively and will also make sure that both parties in the divorce are represented by their lawyers as equally as is possible. Mediating a divorce can be difficult work, as the process of such couples mediation is often filled with deep seeded anger and resentment. Even in the most amicable of all divorces, the use of couples mediation can be hugely helpful to help both parties address all matters as evenly and calmly as possible. Even if the divorce is uncontested, after all, there is a reason that the divorce is happening in the first place, and that reason is often not very pretty or easy to discuss for either party.
Of course, if children are involved in the divorce, matters of custody must be settled before the family mediation or couples mediation process can officially be concluded. Custody can be difficult to decide, especially if one or both parents are against simply splitting custody right down the middle. In such cases where both parties in the divorce are fighting over the custody arrangements that will eventually be set up, family law should come into play throughout the process of the couples mediation. This couples mediation process can help to keep the custody issues out of the court room, however, something that is likely to be hugely beneficial to both parents, as well as for any and all children who are involved. After all, parents ultimately want what is best for their children, no matter how contentious of a relationship that they currently have with one another. Going to court to decide on a custody arrangement will not only be stressful for the divorcing parents, but for the children as well, putting them through strain and stress on top of how their lives have already changed in a big way because of the divorce itself. Fortunately, couples mediation can keep this from becoming a reality. Divorce is difficult, there is no doubt about it, but it can be made much easier through the use of couples mediation to mediate your divorce.