Are you close to becoming an empty nester? Maybe one of your children is already in college, and the other is a senior in high school. You have spent two decades being a parent, but that is all going to change dramatically next year. You are going to become an empty nester.
This is a new stage in life, and it can sometimes lead to divorce. In some cases, couples simply have very different ideas about what their future will look like at this point. If you and your spouse want very different things out of life, this can cause conflicts that may lead to the end of the relationship.
Other potential reasons
Another reason is that there may have been significant issues in your relationship already, but they have been somewhat covered up by the responsibilities of parenting. In other words, both of you have been focused on raising your children, rather than being a couple. You may have put off dealing with your own issues, or you may not have realized how significant they were because parenting itself was a distraction. As an empty nester, this becomes clear.
A third reason for empty nest divorces is that some couples know they want to divorce long before they do it. Maybe you and your spouse originally discussed splitting up five years ago, but you decided that you would stay together until the children graduated to give them a bit more stability in their lives. There are many empty nest divorces that happen quickly after the children move out because that is specifically the point the parents were waiting for.
No matter why you are getting a divorce, the key is to understand all of your legal rights and options as you work through the process.
