My brother-in-law stayed with my sister through her illness, physical and mental, even though they were divorced. The rest of us couldn't handle her--she might have ended up destitute without Bob. After my sister died, I had a plaque made for Bob with the lyrics to the song "I'm glad there is...
There's a kind of relationship where you're free to pursue other people, you have no responsibilities, your own happiness is supreme and you can leave anytime you want. It's called "friends with benefits."
Often, life isn't a choice between being happy or unhappy, but making difficult choices that cannot make everybody happy.
I do agree that people shouldn't argue in front of their children, or discuss marital problems with them. I know way too much about my parents' marriage.
I think '59 was before the era of Austin Powers, the British Invasion, the mod look, etc. (Again, nothing wrong with using that theme if the members will enjoy it.) The beatniks were around then, but I don't associate them with a rip-roaring good time.
British Invasion music is still very...
Paths not taken
I know people who have divorced for good reasons and found better partners. But my brother wouldn't have remarried--he said as much. My father never made any such remarks, but I think he'd be a lonely old man now. My mother would have to have lived with relatives and worked...
From the perspective of this 39-year-old, the unhappily married people I know have probably had a better life together than they would have had separately. I don't suggest that no marriages should end. I know that some are absolutely untenable. Nor do I suggest extremely strict divorce laws. In...
Swing bands went out of fashion after WWII (not that there's anything wrong with having one at your party). Do most of your club members know how to swing dance, or at least social dance? If they aren't dancers, they'll probably just mill around. Are they into vintage? If they aren't, they're...
I researched and wrote a paper for economics class several years ago about the economics of single parenthood. I'll sum it up in a word: poverty.
My employer, a CPA firm, no longer takes marital dissolution (divorce) cases. That's probably because too often, we weren't getting paid.
My...
Going back a long time, it probably was just as you say. The more modern idea has been to choose a mate you loved; most married people have about the same level of good looks and come from the same class, anyway. Now it just seems to be a business arrangement. And when the business goes bad...
An excerpt from an article in the NY Times:
One mother in TriBeCa, who is married, at least for now, to a Wall Street executive, put it rather bluntly: “My job was to run the household and the children’s lives,” she said. “His job is to provide us with a nice lifestyle.” But his bonus has...
My friend Opal was abandoned by her husband c. 1948 in New Mexico. She had a baby and one on the way. When her husband finally contacted her, he wanted a divorce so that he could marry his pregnant girlfriend. Opal got a divorce and a support order. Not that he paid a cent in child support; the...
I think the New Urbanism is supposed to integrate shopping, work, mass transit and housing. Not that it always works as intended; I've heard that in some New Urbanism neighborhoods, you have to drive somewhere else to buy a loaf of bread or a box of nails.
Agreed--the arrangement a couple decides on is their own business. But a lot of women tend to be catty instead of trying to help each other. I'm sure it's been that way since the beginning of time. It didn't start with feminists.
I don't think this is the case for most men, at least those who don't trade on their looks. In movies, you can look like Jack Nicholson or Woody Allen and get an attractive woman half your age. My observation is that some men take that seriously.
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