A journalist and author's musings on love, marriage, divorce and life
Posted in Children, Divorce, Marriage, Parenting on Nov 13th, 2014
Say what you will about Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s “conscious uncoupling” or Jewel and Ty Murray’s “thoughtful and tender undoing,” but if they lived in Oklahoma, they’d be forced to kowtow to legislators who think they know what’s better for couples than the couples themselves. As of Nov. 1, Oklahoma’s married couples with children […]
Posted in Beta marriage, Divorce, Expectations, Marriage, Millennials, Relationships on Aug 5th, 2014
The past week has brought into our lexicon the idea of a beta marriage — a limited term marital contract — thanks to an article in Time magazine by Jessica Bennett, “The Beta Marriage: How Millennials Approach ‘I Do,‘ based on a (clearly unscientific) survey conducted by the USA Network in conjunction with Satisfaction, its […]
Posted in Children, Divorce, Expectations, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships on Jun 17th, 2014
I have to admit that when this Google “divorce” alert came into my email inbox, I kinda smiled: “Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin ‘consciously re-coupling’ as they cool divorce plans.” I don’t know why I smiled; I’m actually a bit horrified that I did. I know divorce isn’t always horrible, especially if you can consciously uncouple […]
Posted in Divorce, Expectations, Marriage, Relationships, Stereotypes, Women on Apr 14th, 2014
There are lots of different reasons why couples call it quits but no matter how or why, all divorced people have one thing in common — being asked, “So, why did you get divorced?” It isn’t necessarily a bad question: sometimes the answer helps people gauge their own relationships. Often, the answer illuminates the divorced […]
Posted in Children, Divorce, Expectations, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships on Mar 26th, 2014
The news this week was that actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay front man Chris Martin are splitting, or as they put it “conscious uncoupling.” In a joint statement, the couple that married in 2003 said: “We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and […]
Posted in Children, Divorce, Expectations, Family, Friends, Marriage, Millennials, Relationships on Mar 11th, 2014
Your friend tells you he’s getting divorced. You’re shocked because he and his wife always seemed like the perfect couple. You’re worried for them and their young kids, and their divorce causes you to reflect about a lot of things you’ve observed about marriage. You know enough from your own parents’ divorce how unhappy things […]
Posted in Dating, Divorce, Expectations, Love, Marriage, Relationships on Dec 2nd, 2013
Oh, love! My co-author Susan Pease Gadoua’s article in Psychology Today, “Three reasons why you shouldn’t marry for love,” has hit a nerve. It had more than 111,000 hits in a week, and we have had dozens and dozens of emails from people in response, many who agree. What does that say about love and […]
Posted in Divorce, Expectations, Love, Marriage, Relationships on Sep 9th, 2013
I have been furiously working on Susan Pease Gadoua’s and my book, The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Cynics, Commitaphobes and Connubial DIYers, the past few months, and during the midst of it was an article about wedleases. Wedleases? Never heard of it — have you? Probably not, because the word didn’t exist before […]
Posted in Cohabitation, Divorce, Expectations, Marriage, Women, Work on Oct 15th, 2012
Reading Laura Doyle’s HuffPost post, “6 Reasons Marriage Counseling is BS,” I recalled my own experience with marriage counseling as my marriage imploded. It was or miss — three couples’ counselors (the first was clearly clueless, the second was good but he didn’t like her, the third came too late), and one solo therapist (I […]
Posted in Divorce, Expectations, Marriage on Oct 2nd, 2012
There was Big! Marriage! News! over the weekend — actress Anne Hathaway got married (and evidently “all we’ve been able to talk about today” is her look) and the New York Times took a crack at marriage contracts (which, as you may know, is among the ideas Susan Pease Gadoua and I are presenting in our […]
Loading tweets...
