Just twelve weeks after suffering serious injuries in a car accident, Mayim Bialik announces that she and her husband of nine years, Michael Stone, are divorcing.
The official statement, from Mayim’s blog:
After much consideration and soul-searching, Michael and I have arrived at the decision to divorce due to “Irreconcilable Differences.”
Divorce is terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible for children. It is not something we have decided lightly.
The hands-on style of parenting we practice played no role in the changes that led to this decision; relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose.
The main priority for us now is to make the transition to two loving homes as smooth and painless as possible. Our sons deserve parents committed to their growth and health and that’s what we are focusing on. Our privacy has always been important and is even more so now, and we thank you in advance for respecting it as we negotiate this new terrain.
We will be ok.
The above statement was posted on Mayim’s blog, as I said, which is hosted on a Jewish online community website called ‘Kveller’, and I’ll be honest—as ‘Kveller’ is a somewhat-religious-themed forum, I really, really expected to see some disparaging, self-righteous comments about how man should not divide that which God has unified or whatever. I really did, sad as it is to say (don’t be misled, however; although I consider myself to be a spiritual person, I think divorce is divorce and there’s nothing wrong with it if it’s what’s necessary to keep people happy and healthy). But you know what? I was really, really pleased to see that *all* of the comments that came through (that were moderated, that is) were positive and supportive of Mayim and her husband’s decision to *not* continue their marriage.
I think we might actually be moving forward as a society, here, guys—I just hope I’m not speaking too soon.
Judaism sees divorce as a last resort but frequently a necessarily last resort. There is no reason why they would bash her for getting divorced.
But at least you’re becoming aware that you’re incredibly ignorant about, and bigoted toward, religion and religious people, so yay progress?
As I am not Jewish, no, I am not familiar with the ins and outs of divorce and whether or not it’s OK as a doctrine in the Jewish faith—but as a Christian, there are many, many denominations (like Catholic) that consider divorce to be something similar to a sin. A friend of mine, who is a member of said Catholic church, was ostracized for her divorce, and then when she wanted to remarry a few years later (in the same Catholic church), they made her and her ex-husband go through an annulment process though the divorce was already legalized through the state before they’d even *consider* remarrying her. And even then, they gave her a hard time and wanted her to enter counseling for her “bad, bad, bad” decision to divorce in the first place.
Excuse me for not being an authority on the variable caveats of the Jewish faith, but that hardly makes me, a “religious people,” as you say, incredibly bigoted or ignorant.
Not to mention the fact that people can be judgmental about divorce even if they AREN’T religious! I would have expected a few negative comments, too…
In Catholicism divorce is a sin. If someone is considering or going through with it they will be blacklisted, it’s how they work. Just like they don’t accept gays or female priests.
The problem with divorce in Judaism is not wanting to or getting a divorce, it’s getting the ‘get’ – the man has to agree to the divorce. If the woman doesn’t get a get – the man doesn’t agree to divorce – there can’t be a divorce.
Don’t blame Sarah she doesn’t know about Judaism, it’s not like the MOT run around sharing information and advertising how Judaism works.
@JessicaK
You’re rude, a jackass and plain wrong. Having a good day there, aren’t you?
The fact that she had to state that her chosen parenting style played NO PART in their divorce leads me to believe it’s has a lot to do with that style of parenting. Kind of hard to have sexy times with your mate when you’re insistant that your kid can’t leave your side.
Sarah, I guarantee you the snide, negative comments were removed from Kveller’s blog postings. NOBODY has a blog open for comments that doesn’t have troll comments.