Skyrocketing Divorce: What It's Like to be a Child Between Homes

Dr. Carole's Couch

While the world outside goes crazy, we also have to cope with our own personal upheavals. And as divorces skyrocket, more children are torn between two homes. Today's guest, Anthony J. Mohr, a former Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, is the author of Every Other Weekend: Coming of Age with Two Different Dads. In this biography, he recounts growing up in the shadow of two towering figures in his life – his father Hollywood actor Gerald Mohr and stepfather, a credit card industry pioneer, Stanley Dashew – in a time when divorce and blended families weren't the norm. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Gerald Mohr made more than 500 radio plays, 73 films, and over 100 television shows, with roles including Raymond Chandler's hardboiled detective, Philip Marlowe. In contrast, Stanley Dashew, was a successful entrepreneur in the finance and credit card industry. As one Dashew's star rose, Mohr's faded as he was unable to sustain his career in the rapidly changing world of entertainment. His story will touch many of you, as either a parent who got divorced or as a child of divorce, yourself.