America’s huge and ever-growing baby boomer population has long been a vanguard for change and experimentation. The so-called “gray” demographic was a lightning rod for social adjustments during the turbulent 1960s and led alternative-lifestyle movements for more than a generation. It redefined stereotypical notions of aging and is now embracing retirement in myriad new ways.
Oh, and there’s this, too: 50-and-up married couples are also leading the country in this notably relevant category: divorce rate.
Given the varied and generally active boomer crowd, that really shouldn’t seem surprising. And, as noted by one established Florida family law legal source, “pulling the divorce trigger hardly spells something truly new for the expansive baby boomer demographic.”
Here’s a relevant question, though: Are there generally a few core reasons driving most gray divorces?
The above-cited source indicates that such is not the case. A hundred boomer divorces might point equally to a hundred different splitting-up catalysts.
Still, though, there is arguably some fundamental overlap that drives discontent and fuels divorce filings for the 50-plus crowd.
That is this: long-simmering and persistently growing incompatibility.
Divorce commentator Ann Gold Buscho underscores that in an article penned recently for the publication Psychology Today. She notes that many couples who have been married for decades often come to progressively realize that they just don’t share much in common anymore, if they ever did.
And they are unwilling to continue with that status quo in upcoming years that could span several additional decades. She spotlights one illustrative divorcing gray couple who “were at an impasse and realized that their interests and goals were irreconcilable.”
It happens, and in millions of instances.
And the eventual silver lining revealed for many divorcing boomers is that it was OK to seek purposeful change and proactively take steps to secure a meaningful post-divorce fresh start.
