“Maybe I should get divorced, too,” a few of my still-married friends have said during our pandemic phone calls. “Just to get a few hours alone.” Some of them are joking and some of them are half-joking and some are not joking at all.

It’s too soon to say for sure what effect the pandemic will have on divorce rates. I know there are many couples who are going through hard times and just can’t afford to split up. But my lawyer, a very nice woman who is trying to maintain her law practice while raising three children who have been remote schooling for the past six months, says that for her, business is booming.

When I asked her if people find it depressing when she tells them what she does, she said, “I don’t call myself a divorce lawyer. I say that I work in family restructuring.”

It occurs to me that a lot of families are going to need some restructuring by the time this is over. Also, I think, many of them probably needed it before.