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Long-Term Effects of Cheating Parents

According to a report by "USA Today," 24 percent of men and 14 percent of women have had sexual affairs while married. As many of these people are parents, their children often suffer the lingering effects associated with an unfaithful mother or father. Not only do they see one parent breaking the most sacred vow to the other parent, but they also suffer emotional as well as psychological damages. These can carry on well into a child's adult years.

  1. Choosing sides

    • Because cheating parents often cause families to tear apart, children are forced to choose between the two. Many times, the "victimized" parent pressures the child to choose her side, citing the other parent's infidelity and making him out to be the evil parent. As a result, the child may learn to hate the offending parent and even cut contact with him later on.

    Imperfection

    • Most children desire to see their parents as people who can do no wrong. When one parent cheats and the relationship ends, the child subconsciously begins believing that relationships cannot work. They believe that all relationships are doomed to fail from the start. This creates an unhealthy environment for any future relationships these children may have when they mature.

    Emotions

    • Children with cheating parents not only see their imperfections, but also develop many emotional, simultaneous feelings such as anger, sadness, confusion and isolation. They may also lose trust in the cheating parent, since he or she let them down. This can lead to trust issues in the child, keeping him from developing healthy relationships with other people later on.

    Concentration

    • Children whose parents have cheated may have troubles focusing in school. They no longer concentrate on schoolwork, causing their grades to drop. Instead, they spend their time wondering why their parents cheated, asking themselves what they did to deserve it and possibly even blaming themselves for it. They may become isolated from others, stuck in their own world, wondering how things turned out this way between their parents.

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