The Divorced Barbie Doll

This is the latest divorce joke I just heard about:

"One day a father gets out of work and on his way home he suddenly remembers that it's his daughter's birthday. He pulls over to a Toy Shop and asks the sales person, 'How much for one of those Barbie's in the display window?' The salesperson answers, 'Which one do you mean, Sir?We have: Work Out Barbie for $19.95, Shopping Barbie for $19.95, Beach Barbie for $19.95, Disco Barbie for $19.95, Ballerina Barbie for $19.95, Astronaut Barbie for $19.95, Skater Barbie for $19.95, and Divorced Barbie for $265.95'.

The amazed father asks: 'It's what?! Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?'

The annoyed salesperson rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers: 'Sir..., Divorced Barbie comes with: Ken's Car, Ken's House, Ken's Boat, Ken's Furniture, Ken's Computer, one of Ken's Friends, and a key chain made with Ken's balls."

Unfortunately, there are so many people who still believe this old perspective on divorce. In fact, there are many OLD divorce cases where this was not even the case. For example, when I got divorced about twenty-eight years ago, my ex-husband was self-employed and managed to convince the court that he was so poor he couldn't event afford the minimum for two children... a few years later it was discovered that he paid more to lease each one of his cars two cars than he gave as child support and alimentary pension to me for his two daughters. I know a lot of women managed to 'take their men to the cleaners' or 'got the shirt off their backs' but this is not the norm.

If it was so common, why the heck would so many single mothers be struggling?! Why would so many children of divorce have to go to college/university with huge loan debts to pay back later? And, why did I not have all the luxuries my ex-husband and his second wife get to have?

Come on people. Stop making and spreading jokes like this that have nothing to do with reality nowadays. The court systems are doing their best to make sure that neither scenario ever happens again. Thank goodness!

Author:
Sharon Shenker, Founder of Divorce Support Plus
www.divorcesupportplus.ca