One of the things we tend to do when trying to wade through a transition most of us don’t want to face is to find a sense of normality or balance in comparing our story to others. There are a lot of generalizations out there about how men and women differ in their approach to divorce and how well they recover from its upheaval.
Perhaps this is because men, with that ability to compartmentalize that we’ve stereotype-stamped them with, begin the process of boxing up the marriage and putting it on the shelf long before that actually happens.
Therefore, once they are on the other side of divorce, the realization that they checked out far earlier than they needed to may smack men in the face a lot harder. Perhaps it is because women, who end up raising the children and making a lot less money far more often, dive deeper and swim longer in the murky questions of whether we should or shouldn’t grip the divorce nettle by the thorns before we jump.
So, we end up with anecdotal theories. Do women regret divorce? Do men really regret it more? It’s as if we’re looking for that last laugh. After all, there’s no better last-word triumph than happiness, right?
