When adults are unfaithful, it doesn’t just affect them; it also affects their children. In fact, the effects may even be more devastating for the younger generation. Kids may blame themselves in the short term and also suffer from problems in their own relationsips in the long term.

Many children will look for reasons to blame themselves for their parents’ action of infidelity. They will begin to feel guilty for causing the situation at hand, and as a result, will begin to feel confused, angry, and sad. All of these misconceptions become a weak foundation on which their present and future feelings of mistrust are built.

Many children draw a strong sense of security from the relationship between their mother and father. When this relationship is negatively affected in any way, that sense of security is destroyed. As a result, many kids are plagued with behavior problems that stems from their fear of an uncertain future. Even the slightest hint of infidelity may cause a child to react in this way.

The effects of infidelity on kids can also cause them to become detached from their siblings, even aggressive. This results from the lack of trust with one or the other of the parents. The child may blame their sibling or either parent, be it the unfaithful one or not. They wonder what the parent suffering from the infidelity may have done to cause it.

Infidelity can ruin family life at home. Often, parents attempt to put on masks to conceal their problems. However, children can see right through these, and things end up being even worse than before. An atmosphere of instability prevails and negates what the children need the most.

Children of unfaithful parents carry with them feelings of mistrust and jealousy into their own love relationships. They may suffer from the illusion that they are doomed to repeat their parents’ patterns, or they may simply believe that they are immune from having a partner that will not do the same thing.

A breakdown in the relationship between a parent and a child can also result from infidelity. The child may harbor feelings of anger or resentment towards their mother or father and feel that they have been abandoned. Deep, emotional wounds such as these never seem able to fully heal, and many children will carry these with them well into their adult lives.

Even if the parents do choose to remain together, rather than going through a divorce which will cause even more damage to a child, there will always be that thought at the back of the child’s mind: will they do this again. They continue to watch out for it and are always wondering if and when.

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