Home Will Never Be the Same Again

A Guide for Adult Children of Gray Divorce

By: Carol R. Hughes, Bruce R. Fredenburg

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Overlooked in the issues that affect couples divorcing later in in life are the adult children of divorcing parents. Their voices open this book, and they are the voices of men and women, 18 to 50 years old. Some of them are single; some are married. Some have children of their own. All of them are in different stages of shock, fear, and sudden, dramatic change.

In Home Will Never Be the Same: A Guide for Adult Children of Gray Divorce, Carol Hughes and Bruce Fredenburg share their deep understanding gained during the innumerable hours they have spent with these women and men in their clinical practices. The result is a valuable resource for these too often forgotten adult children, many of whom find that, whenever they express their feelings and experiences, the most important people in their lives frequently ignore and dismiss them.

As the divorce rate for older adults soars, so too does the number of adult children who are experiencing parental divorce. Yet, these adult children frequently say that they are the only ones who are aware of what they are going through, no one understands what they are experiencing, and they feel painfully alone.

©2020 The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. (P)2020 Tantor

This book would have benefited from a thorough edit from a skilled non-fiction editor

While the book does (eventually) explain the unique and surprising responses adult children can have to their parents’ divorce, the reader has to wade through far too many irrelevant details about the situations described from the author’s practice; e.g., adjective-ridden descriptions about what the adult child of divorce patient was wearing as well as other unimportant and annoying minutia about the person’s appearance, how shaky their breath was when they were speaking, etc.

Helped me understand how my spouse was feeling

My in-laws divorced after 42 years of marriage 2 years ago. This book and experiences in it has helped put into words how my spouse has been feeling and looking at life differently through different lenses. It has helped me to understand how to support my spouse better and be more understanding with him. Although, he is still in the ‘feels’ of all of it, he is learning how to be accepting of reality and how to have healthy boundaries.

great help for adult children of grey divorce

this was just great info, research and applicable actions to take for those of us in the hard situation of having our older parents go through divorce after decades of marriage. my parents are ending their marriage after 44 years and it feels emotionally exhausting. this book is an incredible resource

Good content, word pronunciation irksome

Great book and helpful for those going through divorce of parents later in life. However, the way the narrator says “family” and “dad” drove me crazy and it was hard for me to focus on the content.