Revisiting Celebrity Marriages – Lessons We Can Learn

The last time I visited on this topic was last April but with the rash of celebrity news over the last ten days, now is as good a time as any to take a look at the Hollywood power couples where it appears the marriages are failing or ending with the woman’s successful career continuing to skyrocket and the man’s appearing to be at best, underachieving compared to the wife’s. In the last few weeks we’ve seen Britney Spears leaving Kevin Federline, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Philippe filing for divorce, Whitney Houston finally saying good-bye to Bobby Brown and before … Continue reading

Marriage Lessons For Children

Sometimes I worry. Ok, most of the time I worry, but this is a specific worry. What am I, a divorced woman, teaching my daughter about marriage. I’ve been divorced since my daughter was ten. My ex husband and I made a point to never argue in front of our daughter, so she never got the chance to see us work things out either. I want my daughter to have a marriage that we all dream about so I trot out all the tired cliches: Marriage is a life long commitment. Anything worth having, including marriage, is worth working for. … Continue reading

Divorce Insurance Actually Exists!

It might seem strange to think about, but divorce insurance really does exist! This is not the same thing as pre-nuptual insurance. Some may feel that divorce insurance sounds like an incredibly negative type of insurance policy. Others, however, might decide that the benefits of having this kind of insurance is something they are interested in at least checking out. Everyone assumes that they will experience a nearly perfect, “happily ever after”, kind of marriage. Some couples will be comfortable signing a pre-nuptual agreement before they say “I do”. A pre-nuptual agreement is a written contract that legally defines certain … Continue reading

Marriage in a Disposable Society?

Are we susceptible to the disposable society syndrome? Last week we went to look at the price of a new printer. The printer we were looking at was $99AU. The printer cartridge to go in it was $219AU! ‘That’s ludicrous,’ I said. ‘It’d be cheaper just to keep buying a new printer.’ Mick agreed, it’s a crazy system. It made me think we have become a disposable society. Sadly that attitude carries over into our marriages as well. It sometimes seems when couples strike a rough patch and things aren’t going well or the gloss has gone off the marriage … Continue reading

General Conference From the Past: The Enriching of Marriage

In a General Conference talk given in October 1977, entitled “The Enriching of Marriage”, Elder James E. Faust of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy outlines a variety of methods to avoid divorce by growing and strengthening our marriages. Elder Faust first tells the story of a woman who received a justified divorce, by his reckoning. Several years later, the woman told him that, had she known then what she knew ‘now’, she would have remained in the marriage. He goes on to cite the statistic that, as he gave his talk, for every 100 marriages in … Continue reading

Is Divorce What’s Wrong with Marriage?

Some may read the title and think, “Well, duh!” Divorce, or more accurately, the ease with which people can now be granted a divorce may very well be one of the main reasons marriages fail. You might wonder if I got it backwards. Marriages –particularly bad ones- lead to divorce, but divorce doesn’t lead to a bad marriage, right? It depends. Easy or “no-fault” divorce may in fact lead people to look at marriage with the attitude of, “If I don’t like it, I can always get out of it.” That’s not the way marriage was intended to be undertaken, … Continue reading

Mindless Does Matter

“Contrary popular belief,” says Dr. John Gottman, the professor of psychology who founded the Gottman Institute. “It is the mundane events of everyday life that build love in marriage. Connecting in the countless mindless moments that usually go by unnoticed establishing a positive emotional climate.” Gottman’s research over the last 25 years has lead Gottman to the following conclusions: Only 20% of divorces are caused by an affair Marriages Die with a Whimper So if only 20% of divorces are caused by an affair (which flies in the face of all the muckety muck promoted by soap operas) then the … Continue reading

Marriage After Divorce

Statistics indicate that 50% of all first marriages fail but are you aware the divorce rates of second marriages are estimated to be over 70%? Maybe this explains why many people end up married three and four times before they find that person to grow old and live with until, “death do we part“. There are many reason why a second marriage has a bigger risk of failure then the first. Often, divorced people remarry quickly and find themselves living with the rebound or transitional person. Sometimes, the second marriage was entered into for emotional or security reasons following a … Continue reading