Over the next few weeks you will be hearing in the media, an increasing amount about ‘divorce day’ and, no doubt, another day that is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year when the credit card bills come in after all that festive spending. It can all look a bit bleak in January but 2020 was an extraordinary year so not everything is quite as it seems.
It is true that divorce enquiries rise after holiday periods and in particular after the Summer and Christmas holidays. This is largely down to long periods of time together finally bringing existing relationship problems to a head. Since March 2020 things have been slightly different, as the pandemic lockdowns replicated all the stresses of a long holiday period without any of the positives, in terms of festivities, places to go or people to visit.
The rise in enquiries about divorce has been noticeable from last summer and has continued at a higher level than usual ever since. The family law team are waiting to see if the recent Christmas break will cause a rise in divorce enquiries or whether the increase in home working and repeat lockdowns have already brought enquiries, that would usually emerge at this time of year, into the open already.
This article from the BBC website is an interesting study into the effects of the pandemic on relationships. There seems to be some evidence it has brought about break ups amongst couples who didn’t have any identified problems before the pressures caused by Covid-19 started impacting on their relationship.
Of course, this can all look a bit negative for the start of 2021 but there are plenty of reasons to be positive with the delivery of a vaccine and Spring not being that far off. Many relationships have grown stronger during the various lockdowns, so there are plenty of good news stories to offset some of the failed relationships.
