Broken homes equal more balanced children

As Philip Larkin bluntly puts it in This Be the Verse "They fuck you up, your mum and dad, They do not mean to but they do. They fill you with the faults they had, And add some extra just for you."

If this is the case, then according to recent reports in the media, coming from a broken home renders you as well and truly fucked. It has been suggested that children whose parents are divorced are more likely to suffer from a variety of problems ranging from mental health issues, failure at school and unemployment.

My own family is so fragmented, the social studies bigwigs would be having wet dreams over using it for a case study into broken homes. Ma and pa can't bear to be in the same room together, whilst my dad's new partner refuses to speak to myself or any of my siblings. I have an older half sister by eleven years whom I share the same dad with, who consequently won't speak to either my mum or our dad. Graduations, weddings, birthdays, Christmases all become farcical affairs. It all reads like the script for the next episode of Hollyoaks and past reports into broken families would make me a prime case for being depressed, socially inept and well and truly Larkineque fucked.

Yet, I think my messy and complex family life has not held me back in anyway as reports into children from divorced families suggest, but has actually helped me in social situations. Acting as the go-between means I've learnt social skills and how to deal with people in social situations, that I think children coming from more comfortable backgrounds would never have experienced. I find it easy to form relationships with people, and I find I can get on with all types of people from all different social backgrounds.

The studies neglect to see those children from broken homes acting as the mediator in an arguement, or having the confidence to be able to speak out and stand up for themselves. My background has given me determination to work hard, in the knowledge that I have a variety of different social backgrounds to fall back onto.

Conflict and chaos are not such "Terribles homes to grow up in" - as put by Patricia Morgan, spokesperson for The Department of Health - if you can look back and see how these situations have prepared you for real life. When put into the same situations those coming from cosy, cushioned family homes are brought with a sudden bump to the real world, and surely that is more likely to lead to depression?

Come forward my fellow latchkey kids and proves these academic eggheads compiling the reports on social deprivation wrong. I bet if they took a second look at children from broken homes thet would notice it is us keeping it all together.