Thursday, June 9, 2011

The Curse of the Semi-Happy Marriage


As I was logging onto my yahoo account to get my dad's itinerary for his trip here in August, I came across an article about semi-happy marriages. I think the main point in the article is that marriages that are "comfortable" are responsible for a great deal of divorces. As a divorce attorney, I see a variety of different reasons for why marriages break up from adultery to massive financial problems. I do see some people who simply cannot articulate why their marriage is "irretrievably broken" when asked this question in Court. There have been a couple of occasions at a mediation or final hearing when I cannot really understand why the marriage is ending in divorce because the parties seem like great friends. With the recent fairytale wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton splashed all over every media outlet, its easy to see that Americans love the "fairytale". Does that mean that a marriage doesn't work if it isn't a fairytale? I am going to be so bold as to say that most marriages are not fairytales 100% of the time. Does this mean that divorce makes sense? I find this article slightly concerning with the current rate of divorce being very high, I would hope that people determine whether they are the "marrying kind" before they say I Do.

4 comments:

Laura said...

It's true. Everyone does want the fairytale marriage. Is this realistic? That is up to the individual to decide. The semi-happy marriage can happen when people rush or are unsure of their marriage in the first place. Some people also don't know what being truly "happy" really is.

dominic said...

As you say a rather disconcerting trend revealed by the article. Surely people can decide prior to marriage

Anthony said...

I agree with your last sentence. Many people marry for reasons that defy common sense, then turn around and raise 'hell' when it falls apart.

There is a scripture that talks about, who God hath joined together, let no man separate, but sometimes it does not take too long to conclude that 'God had nothing to do with the union in question'.

nancy said...

Marriage works by loving the right person enough to make the right choices as you do so.

Orange County marriage and family counselor