By the time a child is in junior high, and certainly by high school, most peer groups have crystallized. It can become increasingly difficult for a teen to make new friends. A large percentage of the poor in our country are single mothers with children. When a family has been supported primarily by the father's income, and then if the husband remarries, this income must help support two homes, and both families suffer. It is usually, however, the mother and the children from the first marriage who suffer most.
Some fathers even feel happy their former wives are suffering.
Apparently overlooked by this incensed father is the fact that his children are also suffering. This line of thinking demonstrates no understanding or caring for the needs or feelings of the children. It is, however, an extremely possessive and punishing attitude that some men appear to enjoy. This is not to advocate that all children should live with their mothers or to suggest that all fathers are punitive. In many divorcing families the children live with the father, usually by mutual choice.