Which brings more pain?

[Pilgrim525]

Which brings more pain to a person: being betrayed by your own spouse or having your parental authority being repudiated by your own child?

 

[St_Francis]

Which brings more pain to a person: being betrayed by your own spouse or having your parental authority being repudiated by your own child?

I would say the first. Few of our children are saints so an occasional repudiation of parental authority is to be expected, but infidelity is a huge breach of the vows a spouse made to one.

 

[kmuestwin]

It depends.

The amount of emotional pain someone suffers is subjective. There is no way to quantify how much an emotional trauma is going to effect someone.

 

[TheWarriorMonk]

Without doubt, the former.

 

[EasterJoy]

Which brings more pain to a person: being betrayed by your own spouse or having your parental authority being repudiated by your own child?

That depends. There is “betrayal” and then there is “betrayal”, while there is also “repudiation” and then again “repudiation”. Most of the things that truly qualify as a betrayal are worse offenses. As for the pain, that depends on the people involved.

 

[TheWarriorMonk]

IMHO, “betrayal” is worse, provided betrayal is being used in the context of destroying trust (cheating, divorced without cause, etc.). Husband and wife take vows; parents and children do not. When people toss vows to the wind, the trust is gone. Even when people talk about rebuilding trust, there is always lingering doubt.

To provide a simple example, what is worse? Cheating between spouses that have vows, or between boyfriend and girlfriend that don’t?