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"I came across an article today about Julie, the American Girl Doll. My daughter has a few of these dolls - gifts from Peter&amp;#039;s family mostly, and the one I bought second-hand off eBay since they&amp;#039;re too rich for my pocketbook now. Julie is one of them, and for good reason. Julie is the American Girl doll with the divorced parents. The author of the article, Amy Zeittlow, really gives you food for thought. She had been reading various American Girl Doll biographies to her daughter, and when she read Julie&amp;#039;s, her daughter remarked about the sadness of Julie&amp;#039;s situation. There are American Girl Dolls that experience poverty, slavery, Revolutionary and Civil wars, but none of them resonated the same way as Julie did. Mainly because, as Ms. Zeittlow points out, those things were something the parents were experiencing. Divorce hurts all around. More than that, divorce has a life-long effect. Ms. Zeittlow adds: &amp;quot;I found myself wondering....how Julie will learn to create a long term loving relationship...how to choose a lover and how to commit to another with realistic hope that it can last?&amp;quot; Welcome to one of the greatest heartaches of a divorcing mother&amp;#039;s life. What have I done to my kid? To her prospects for love in the future? I remember saying to Peter (in one of our many have-it-out sessions), &amp;quot;Do you realize what we&amp;#039;ve done? She&amp;#039;s going to be standing at an altar someday, and she won&amp;#039;t be able to believe in forever. Not really.&amp;quot; That weighs heavily on me, it really, really does. I guess all I can hope for is that she believes that she can handle whatever comes along, because of her belief in herself. That she believes that love is worth working at, not running away from when it&amp;#039;s not perfect. That she believes in finding someone who&amp;#039;s willing to make a journey with her, not just agree to meet her at some mythical destination.  Do you feel guilt over the way your divorce might affect your kids, in their future relationships? What lessons are you trying to give them from the failure of your marriage? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a47832/doll-for-kids-like-mine/>