I recently read a book that while it would officially be classified as ‘chicklit’ actually made me think a lot. As I write , why do I say that as though the two events are mutually improbable, like a hot and freezing bit of ice…
Anyway, this is the book I read.

In the book and here, they define a starter marriage thus:
A starter marriage is a first marriage that lasts five years or less and ends before the couple has children.
This term was first coined by the writer Pamela Paul in her famous book, The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony where she talks about this very thing: people getting married younger, slightly older than they did a century back, and staying married for fewer years and higher divorce rates.
Of course this was in America and while this book is mainly fiction, we do know that art imitates reality, or does reality imitate art? Either way, its cause for concern and it made me look at all my friends marriages. OBVIOUSLY ( and this is the all-important disclaimer) : I have no idea what’s happening in most of them and so I am not basing this on what I might have seen or not seen BUT it just scared me a little and made me ask myself, what would happen to these weddings.
Easily ten or so of my friends, acquaintances AND close friends, have gotten married in the last three years and most seem happy but they were also within the ages of 25 (for the girls) and 27 (f0r the boys) figures given by Paul from her study of these types of marriages. I was recently speaking to a friend of mine ( and I fear I might have talked about it before…) about how it appears that young people today seem to go into marriage with so many exit options where they might walk away from the union. Now I don’t advocate for people to stay when the marriage is violent BUT… I recently read a magazine that spoke about Divorce and while that is a landmark in and of itself, one of the ladies interviewed stated how she thinks that she gave up too soon and given a second chance would opt for the reconciliation route rather than the option she took. Now that just made me feel so sad, that while nothing is stopping her from doing so now, she only discovered that now, AFTER the divorce…
Having read about this new phenomenon, hardly positive enough to be called a trend, I wonder whether these couples knew going in or if they only saw these signs later. I have heard and seen some of my friends make certain choices with their potential mates that made my eye brow rise, but thats their choice, or is it really? Mhhh…
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