On Seinfeld, George lamented having to buy gifts for people for all of their milestones, but if an article in The Wall Street Journal is accurate, there may soon be another reason to buy presents.
With 50% of all marriages ending in divorce, it’s a pretty safe bet you may soon be picking up something for a friend’s divorce party.
The events are picking up steam, according to the paper, which tracked recent divorcees who wanted to mark being released into the wild with a party.
The Journal likened them to a “reverse bachelorette party” following Brandi Sellers, who recently had hers.
There were fake rose petals to be thrown around, a “Bye Felicia” banner and photos of pairs of penguins torn down the middle. “I ripped the penguins in half because penguins are monogamous birds who are supposed to mate for life. Well, I’m not your penguin anymore,” she contended.
Retailers like Amazon and Etsy have taken note of the trend, offering divorce party essentials like sashes for the guest of honor — including one that reads “End of an Error” — and balloons reading “Divorced AF.”
Divorce lawyer Nicole Sodoma, author of the book, Please Don’t Say You’re Sorry, tells the Journal, “People have really decided to nip that societal shame [of divorce] and instead embrace being divorced as another stage of life that some of us experience.”
On Pinterest, searches for “divorced dad aesthetic” jumped $300 this past June compared to last year, the paper says.
While both women and men are taking part in the trend, it certainly skews more toward the former.
Kris Marks, a mental-health facilitator from Canada notes, “As a guy, we don’t call it a divorce party, we call it ‘Let’s go for drinks.'” He adds, “We just cope differently.”