Posted in Caregiving, Children, Cohabitation, Expectations, Family, Happiness, Love, Marital plan, Men, Needs, Relationship contract, Relationships, Romantic relationships, Women on Dec 11th, 2018
When Mandy Len Catron wrote about her relationship contract with her partner in the New York Times’ Modern Love, it get a lot less love than her earlier and much-read Modern Love essay on the 36 questions that can lead you to fall in love with anyone, which led to her charming and insightful book, […]
Read Full Post »
It’s almost Thanksgiving, the beginning of the holiday season and the kick off of “engagement season.” The pressures around the holidays make many of us unhappy, and even if we’re generally OK with our situations — partnered or not — it’s hard not to buy into the whole “most wonderful time of the year” thing. […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Children, Expectations, Happiness, Love, Marriage, Needs, Politics, Relationships, Wife, Women on Nov 13th, 2018
On the surface, it would be hard to find a more picture-perfect healthy, happy marriage — especially an uber-public marriage — than Michelle and Barack Obama’s. Despite the temptation to compare our romantic relationships with the curated happy relationships we often see on Instagram and Facebook — and some of us are guilty of that […]
Read Full Post »
Someone loves you — in a romantic way — and you love that person in return. Do you have an obligation to try to stay alive as long as possible because it would be painful for your partner if you die? That’s an issue brought up in Free Solo, a new documentary about Alex Honnold, […]
Read Full Post »
#MeToo stories have been dominating the news for the past year, and many men are exploring their own behavior toward women and what masculinity means to them — all necessary discussions. Women, men are finally beginning to understand, have sexual agency. But based on a discussion I had with a 52-year-old man I had just […]
Read Full Post »
Beautiful Boy is hitting the movie theaters next week, a film based on the best-selling books by father and son David and Nic Sheff. It’s a heart wrenching look at addiction — extremely timely, as overdoses are now the leading cause of death of Americans under the age of 50. But the back story is […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Children, Divorce, Expectations, Happiness, Love, Marriage, Midlife, Parenting, Relationships, Romantic relationships, Weddings on Oct 2nd, 2018
Gwyneth Paltrow married for the second time, to Brad Falchuk, this past week, after her 11-year marriage to Chris Martin famously consciously uncoupled in 2014. Paltrow is now 46; this marriage won’t be about having children together — she has two with Martin and Falchuk, 47, has two from his 10-year marriage to Suzanne Bukinik, […]
Read Full Post »
For many years everything I read and heard, and thus believed, is that women aren’t good at casual sex, only have affairs for love, eventually become disinterested in sex and do best in monogamous relationships. OK, but my lived experience proved otherwise. True, I’ve been a serial monogamist, which I interpret as being pretty good […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Beta marriage, Divorce, Expectations, Happiness, Live Apart Together, Love, Marriage, Needs, Relationships, Renewable marriage, Sex on Sep 11th, 2018
A few weeks ago, I heard from Christina Hoff Sommers and Danielle Crittenden, creators of the Femsplainers podcast, who kindly asked me to join them for Season Two and talk about reshaping marriage a la The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels. And so I did. Sommers, the author of five […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Aging, Children, Divorce, Expectations, Family, Happiness, Heartbreak, Infidelity, Marriage, Mothers, Politics, Relationships on Sep 4th, 2018
This past week, the country mourned for U.S. Sen. John McCain, who died Aug. 25 at age 81. He was lauded by Barack Obama, Joe Biden and others as a hero, a friend, a voice of reason, an “extraordinary man.” While I didn’t necessarily agree with McCain’s politics, I agree that he was a man […]
Read Full Post »