Colorado Kids Divorce Essay

Growing up a San Antonio native I am a daughter and sister to a family that consists of a mother, father, two brothers and a sister. My family had a good reputation being known as the family that hosted parties and gatherings for holidays and special occasions. Friends and family would come over to feel the love and comfort throughout the house and through our family portraits. However, my family was not that that perfect picture hanging on the wall. My parents were not that happy and loving as it appeared to be. I never really saw my parents embrace each other or look happy. Time took its toll and my parents decided to call it quits.

All the tension from my parents led to a separation where we lived with my grandmother for a short while then

A popular and therapeutic way to deal with a divorce is through art. There is a program called Colorado Kids Divorce Art that allows students to paint and draw to express their feelings as an outlet. Some of the painting I saw were so detailed it basically told the story that child has gone through. The registered art therapist Sue Wallingford, MA, LPC, ATR that is part of the program gave a great insight of what the purpose of the program is “For children, like their parents, divorce is often a traumatic and life-changing event. Unlike their parents, however, children often lack the verbal skills or emotional maturity adequately to process their feelings with words. Art-making is an alternative that allows for the poignant communication of feelings. Art may portray inner thoughts and wishes of children that they cannot otherwise easily access or express. The difficult emotions that often accompany divorce take form in line, shape and color! As a result, children are able to make sense of what is happening in the changing landscape of their family and indeed, their world. Painting, drawing or other creating of art affords children a way literally to express, see and work through their experience of

Sadly, a negative outcome that came from this divorce was that I was never really able to establish a close relationship with my mother and my other siblings that lived with her. I am close to my father and brother because I shared my childhood and life with them. I was able to establish new family relationships with my father’s side of the family such as my grandmother and aunt. I am reminded daily of this struggle of what a traditional family should look like or be doing. For example, on holidays families gather together and it is supposed to be a grand celebration with the traditional family seen on many media forms on television, stores, cards, or pictures. A famous painting Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell is a traditional family gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving together it is the picture-perfect example of traditional family. The holidays are something I struggle with when they come around. I often have to choose sides as to which parent I am going to spend the holiday with, and we are still a divided family that cannot come together. Holidays are similar to a ritual that allow people to come together, it allow the family to stick together as these holidays are consistent and build family bonds. These unrealistic expectations and views of how families spend the holidays can be bothersome for people that are not part of traditional family. Now during this present time, we