You’ve heard about the bachelor and bachelorette parties, the wedding receptions, and the baby showers. But now some people are actually having divorce parties, recognizing that divorce can be the start of a new life.
Alison Dickenson of The Guardian covers the new trend:
The key, it seems, is not only in the timing but also in making the event a positive one…
Christine Gallagher, author of How to Throw a Breakup Party, has been a divorce-party planner since 2008 and organises two parties a month from her home in Los Angeles. For many of her clients, a breakup party provides a way back in to being seen socially as a single person and perhaps goes some way toward eradicating common fears about having to socialise again without a partner. Around 80% of her clients are women; something that she thinks may be because men find it easier to move on.
“Every significant event in life has a gathering, but divorce has been kept under wraps, perhaps due to the historical stigma,” she says. “But it can be helpful to have family and friends around to provide support at times of change and a gathering is simply a formal way of doing that.
“It’s about celebrating a person and making them feel positive about the change their life has taken, rather than celebrating the end of the marriage or relationship.”
Even the celebrities are doing it. Jack White of the White Stripes announced this week that he will be divorcing his wife of six years, Karen Elson, and marked the occasion by a “positive swing bang hum dinger” in Nashville, TN,
We feel so fortunate for the time we have shared and the time we will continue to spend both separately and together watching our children grow.
What’s next? Happy Divorce greeting cards?