She didn't want to tell me, but…after Dad came home and explained the whole thing, they both asked me to keep it secret from my younger siblings. I had to keep it secret for over a year I think… My dad even blamed me outright for ruining the marriage multiple times.

It's quite a long story - but my whole childhood involved a lot of abuse between my parents... it wasn't until my siblings and I started seeking help that child services and law enforcements came in.

I didn't feel loved by my dad. Mom was distant and to this day, don't know exactly why. She wasn't affectionate to her children.

I’m my dad's only child, but now I'm 36 and my dad still doesn't want anything to do with me.

When I was 15…my dad told me that he and my mom were in love, best friends, and had a good marriage... until I was born. At dark times, I wondered if there was any purpose or positivity in the fact that I was born.

That night, my sister and brother-in-law slowly walked down the basement stairs and turned right at the bottom, entering my mom’s office…My sister turned on the PC and opened my mom’s email. Moments later, she told me not to come into the room. I looked anyway—and I wish I hadn’t.

I thought [my dad] would be back in a month, but he never moved back home. Instead, he found a girlfriend, a new common-law wife, and her kids became his new family. He never called, and I basically didn’t see him for four years.

I spent my teens and most of my twenties making awful decisions and endangering my life. I have never spoken to my mum or dad about the divorce, or any of my siblings.

What followed, I will simply say, was the lowest point of my life. I very quickly met a bad crowd and started to spiral out of my faith and moral decency. I began dating, and very little of it was done properly. I began to struggle with depression and coped with alcohol and impurity. My family situation had been steadily getting worse. My parents refused to separate, but were unable to even have simple conversations without venom and arguments ensuing.

At the time, I was relieved that all the shouting and crying were over. My dad lived in a big city and it was exciting to visit him…It wasn't until I was turning 40 that I realised how damaged I was from my dad's abandonment and the subsequent divorce.

I’ve been terrified to have kids. I struggle when I make a mistake. I have a hard time relaxing and I work a lot. I have a lot of issues with money and I struggle to see God as the provider. I have a lot of regret about not having kids, but I’m proud we finally stabilized my parents. It took so much from me, but I’m much closer to my God because of all the trauma.

It was not until very recently that I realized that my parent's divorce affected me. I think the circumstances surrounding it were so chaotic that I never saw it as the most impactful thing… I never witnessed their love and felt so far removed from the dynamics of their marriage (besides their bickering) that I did not think I had much to grieve… Today, I am grieved by my parent’s divorce, as I see it as the catalyst to the various other traumas I experienced.

My mom had an affair and left us for her boyfriend, now husband. It was messy, we didn't see it coming. She moved out on Thanksgiving weekend. I came home from school and she was just gone. I still remember what it felt like to discover she had left. My dad was devastated, so he wasn't available to help guide me during this time. I was alone to figure it out. What hurt more was the fact that this happens all the time, so it's no big deal. But it was a huge deal to me.

I have very low self-esteem and have trouble feeling like I have the friendships I have. I have some friends, but at this point, I don’t feel too close to anyone, though I desire this. When dating, I am quite insecure with the person I’m with, which makes it hard to discern marriage with them. I feel insecure about changes in conversation and in my emotions while dating. I fear the person will leave and it will end.

I have no memory of my parents ever being affectionate or kind to each other and I remember if I went to a friend's house and saw their parents getting along, I thought it was weird. When they would communicate with each other, I only remember the constant fighting. I wasn't really expecting the news of their separation because I thought that the way they interacted with each other was normal and I thought that's obviously how all marriages would be.

No one seemed to feel the need to explain what happened to me I feel like since the divorce it’s been important for me to plan everything, know everything, so I can control my world. I’m not good with surprises or changing my plans. That makes me very inflexible. And I have a deep fear of being abandoned.

It has left me with rocky instability. The foundation of my life was poured on sand. I am blessed enough now that the Lord has been laying rock down the whole time and now I live a life of reclaimed joy and victory.

I remember feeling a heavy burden on my heart and on my shoulders. I felt abandoned and alone. I knew I was going to be the sole comforter and emotional support for my younger siblings as our parents went through with the divorce. Growing up I had already created a habit of taking on family’s problems that weren't mine to bear.