A normal conversation about boys and families had gone from just fun to serious.

Mary Davis asked her close group of friends, “How do you enter into a relationship when you’ve seen your parent’s relationships struggle?”

One friend has parents who were separated for about a year. Another has parents who seem to have fallen out of being “in love” with one another.

Elise Groholski’s parents separated for almost a year, but the relationship her parents have now is stronger than it was before. They go on dates and she thinks that her dad is going to surprise her mother with a trip to Hawaii to combine celebrations for her mom’s retirement and their twenty-fifth anniversary.

Even though things between Groholski’s parents are better now, the process was difficult.

“My room at home is by my mom’s room and I heard her crying a lot at night. It wasn’t an easy process,” said Groholski.

Sarah Mobbs’ parents have fallen out of being “in love” with each other.  To her parents divorce isn’t an option because both of her parents would be devastated.

“My mom told me she still loves my dad, but my dad won’t admit it. I tried talking to him about it. Even though he won’t say it he still does things that show he loves her,” said Mobbs.

In her relationship now, Mobbs told her boyfriend that she didn’t know how to act like a woman, but realized that the more he acted like a strong, independent man her role as a supporting woman came.

“The first few months were rough,” said Mobbs.

Lisa Brock in her article “Teens and Divorce” for TroubledWith.com says, “Statistics show that nearly two-thirds of first marriages will end in divorce; that means about half of all American children will experience their parents’ divorce.”

The consensus of advice for Mary Davis was that you have to talk to your significant other and we don’t have to end up like our parents. All that it takes is a little bit of work. If you don’t discuss your fears about the relationship you can lose the person that you care deeply about.