Certain months of the year tend to see spikes in divorce filings. January is one of those months. That doesn’t necessarily mean that most divorces are resolved during January, but simply that this is when people start the process.
But why do they choose January? What is it about the new year it makes it more likely for a marriage to end?
Starting fresh with a New Year’s resolution
In some cases, people view it as a fresh start. This is sort of the same principle as having a New Year’s resolution. You want something to change in your life, and doing it in January just seems to make sense logically. It gives you that extra little push to do what you wanted to do the whole time. Many people who have been thinking about divorce and aren’t quite sure realize that this is the year that they want to go ahead with it, and they do it as soon as the year starts.
Additionally, a lot of divorce filings are from parents who still have young children. They may want to avoid the Christmas season because they know how important it is for the children to feel stable and secure, and things can feel more complicated when the kids aren’t in school. As a result, they wait until the children go back to school in early January and then the parents begin to dissolve the marriage on their own.
Are you thinking of getting divorced this January or perhaps later this year? If you are, make sure you carefully consider property division, child custody rights and all the other factors that are going to influence your divorce.
