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We all know that a marriage evolves with time, but we don’t always realize that divorces do, too—sometimes for the better. Old resentments don’t have to carry over like frequent flier miles; in fact, I've met many people who have crafted positive, peaceful relationships with their former spouses.
This truth can discomfit well-meaning friends or family members who expect your divorce to be an emotional severing as firm as the terms of your legal split. As a father of two in San Diego told me, some friends continued to insist that he “hadn’t moved on” 10 years after his separation because he wasn’t filled with rancor at his ex. But our feelings aren’t wired like an on/off switch; plenty of former couples get along far better once they’re no longer married.
Following are 4 good reasons why a relationship might just improve, post-marriage:
1. You Need Less From an Ex Than From a Spouse
We expect different things from a spouse than from an ex; changing the terms of the relationship can make it function more smoothly. Sometimes idealized hopes for bliss cause chaos when they crash up against the reality of marriage, or at least of this particular marriage. Even if we think we have a realistic, totally modern view of matrimony, and are not expecting a prince (or princess) on a white horse, the very singularity of our one and only spouse puts a lot of pressure on that person to be just right.
When you downgrade this person’s role in your life from spouse to something else, long-standing frustrations may disappear. For example, I found myself suddenly appreciating my once-husband’s specific strengths after we separated. He’d sometimes take out my trash. He’d move my car on street-cleaning days to prevent me from getting parking tickets. He did these things while we were married, too, but back then I was often too frustrated by our problems to care. Now? I was thrilled with the help. I believed his concern about me in a way I didn’t quite feel when we were wed.
As Zsa Zsa Gabor said, “You never really know a man until you’ve divorced him.”
Of course, you’re the same people as before—and your incompatibilities may well persist. But in a less enmeshed, interdependent relationship, you run up against them far less frequently, or in such contained circumstances that they don’t exert the same influence over your life.
2. Your Ex Might Change
On the other hand, you’re also not exactly the same people you were in marriage. “People grow and change in divorce, and you have to keep updating yourself on who they are now,” says M.J. Murray-Vachon, a licensed clinical social worker in Indiana who has been seeing couples and individuals for 30 years.
With a marriage’s end, some people break out of a carapace that hardened over them with the years. Your ex may begin to operate differently, in a way you find easier to take. Also, once you separate, your former spouse still has your complaints in his or her head, and may well address them on his or her own, working harder to show an interest in art, for example, or finally keep the car filled with gas.
Your former spouse, in other words, may change into someone you get along with better.
3. You Might Change
Sometimes your ex remains his or her same old self, but you change. You become stronger, more independent, happier, or at least less angry. You finally feel free to live your life on your own terms, and this sense of “fit” in your home and your days enhances your confidence or patience, your magnanimity or ability to let disagreements slide.
Some people find that taking responsibility for an old point of contention changes a dynamic. “I’ve seen entire cases change because one person looked at the other and said, ‘Thank you for being such a good provider all these years.’ Or, a women felt undervalued, and the man says, ‘I just want to say what a great job you’ve done with our children,'" said Colorado lawyer/mediator Beth Henson. “Never underestimate the power of a sincere ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ or an ‘I’m sorry.’”
In my own life, I found that once we split, I could actually practice some of the good communication skills marriage counselors always stress. Marriage researcher and psychologist John Gottman says he can tell within minutes if a couple will divorce based on how they speak to each other. In his bestselling marriage guide, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, he describes what he calls "The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse"—criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. These behaviors are so corrosive that when he sees couples engaging in them, he sees a divorce in their future.
I knew about these Four Horsemen from personal experience. But once my husband moved out, the horsemen went with him. My ability to communicate kindly increased exponentially. If I was angry, I could wait until I calmed down to say something about it. I could hear, for the first time, how a “casual” critique wasn’t constructive at all. I felt proud of my newfound ability to communicate well. I felt skilled, subtle, mature.
Many people say that when they remove the underlying pressure to accept very real incompatibilities for one’s entire life, the day-to-day experience of them is far less disheartening, and less likely to trigger a verbal spat.
4. You See Yourselves As Partners With a Goal
Sometimes former spouses get along better because they can see themselves more clearly as allies in a strategic goal—such as parenting their children or keeping a business afloat—whereas spouses in a waning marriage can feel like opposing camps in a cold war. The mere act of cooperation can change how we view and treat an ex.
It takes works to continually improve your divorce, but it’s worth the effort. For parents, there’s the added incentive of modeling compassion for their children. As a mother in Beacon, NY, said about her relationship with her ex, “Our kids see not a marriage, but a loving relationship. And they see what it’s like when adults who love each other disagree.”
