[quote=CA renter]
Finally, you have the divorces that happen when the youngest reaches around 18 years of age or graduates from college. These are the marriages where both parents stuck it out “for the kids.” These are the ones where the women usually seek the divorce, most likely because they’ve been living for other people throughout the marriage and want to “find themselves.”
[/quote]

We’ve seen a fair amount of this.

Looks to me like some of it is staying together for the kids, but there is another thing going on here too.

When your life revolves around your kids, then when they are gone you have much more time with your spouse and have to find new things to do, new hobbies, new things in common.

I remember going through that. It almost felt like we sat there on the couch, looked at each other and said “now what?”. It was incremental of course and not one dramatic moment, but that’s what happened. Luckily we tried many new activities and found some we both liked so it drew us even closer together as a couple than we had kids at home.

But I can easily imagine couples that go the other way…they can’t find new activities they both enjoy so they drift further apart. Not saying they are better or worse than us, it’s just what can happen as time passes and things change.