A phone conversation I had with my Mom today. We were discussing my plans to come home for the holidays:
Mom: “…So are you bringing the dogs with you?”
Me: “No, my new neighbor across the street is going to take care of them for me.”
Mom: “(gasp!) You mean that guy that JUST moved in a few weeks ago? You don’t even KNOW him.”
Me: (sigh) Mom, he’s married with two kids and two dogs of his own."
Mom: “Oh, OK then.”
After I hung up the phone I got to thinking: “Man that’s kind of f’ed up. I’ll automatically trust a married family guy but not the lone stranger across the street?” :dubious:
Is that fair?
The ironic part of all this is I’m a divorced man with two kids!
It doesn’t necessarily count for a lot in any individual case, but married men tend to commit less crime and be more socially responsible than unmarried ones.
Plus, you have evidence that he’s managed to convince at least one other person he’s worth associating with.
I’m a good deal more mature and responsible now that I’m married than I was when I was single. I don’t want to be, but I’m told I have no choice in the matter.
Yes, all other things equal, at least due to the fact that at least one other person in the world will associate with them.
While I don’t doubt Antinor1’s findings in the personals, the comparison group would have to be unmarried people in the personals, and surely some of them already have a girlfriend/boyfriend who doesn’t know about the ad.
I don’t think its entirely unfair… Guys with kids generally are more responsible, more grown up, than single guys. Having kids forces you to grow up a bit more and take fewer risks, whereas a single guy with no kids can remain, well, a kid for the most part.
I’m sure the actuarial tables show just that, considering the difference in insurance rates given.
Though I find the worry over a dog a bit over the top. Worst case scenario, as someone said, he gets more people food to eat, and maybe shits in the house a few times. Its not hard to take care of a dog.
It’s probably more the fact that he has dogs of his own, don’t you think? I mean, they presumably look happy and healthy, so you trust him.
Plus, it’s true, some of the single guys that I know tend to flake if something comes up more easily than most of the married guys I know. Some of the single guys are really responsible, and a few of the married ones are flakes, but if you’re playing percentages, the married guys are a better bet for handling responsibility.
Group’s too large to generalize. I suppose, if anything, a married guy’s accountable to at least one other person and has a social network (and reputation) to maintain. Versus a single guy you don’t really know. Really sneaky serial killers with wives aside.
I don’t think I could answer this either way. In my experiences it’s about 50/50. If the guy was responsible when he was single, he’ll be responsible married. If he was a douche single, he may improve a little when he starts a family, but there’ll still be quite a bit of douche. I’ve met maybe two people total whose lives were completely turned around by having children, and that’s out of hundreds. A lot of married guys put up a trustworthy front but still feel like they can get away with stuff. You won’t believe the things some of my married collegues confide to me. I’d be rich if I had a dime for every conversation I’ve had like this:
Collegue: My wife doesn’t trust me.
Me: No shit!
YMMV, of course.
However, that’s just to answer the “trustworthy.” I find that they do tend to take their responsibilities more seriously once they start having children. But that’s a far cry from being trustworthy.
With a married guy, you have to assume that there is at least one person in the world who can stand being with them.
A single guy can be so sketchy that no one would want to be near him! (Ahh I miss being single and living alone. At least the GF is going to her parents for a few days which will allow me to digress.)
Bleh, missed the edit window. 50/50 is more of a catch-all phrase. I didn’t mean to imply that half of the married guys I meet are cheating bastards, that’s a bit high :smack: Very poor choice of … something.
I would say yes although I think it is a combination of being married AND the kids. My wife and I do tag team parenting so I am a virtually a single parent for two small girls at least three nights a week and much of the weekend. Parents drop their kids off to play during the weekends when we invite them. I can take care of their kids as well. I can certainly take care of dogs and cats. I wouldn’t know how to do that 6 years ago even after I got married but the current circumstances dictate that I can be completely responsible for any child or almost any animal on a moments notice. I have been through it all before. Single men with no kids may be oblivious to everything it takes to pull such things off.
I don’t know about trustworthy, but they’re more stable. Single people can take off at a moment’s notice and often do. Married people and people with kids are generally at home since they need to provide a stable environment for the family. For that reason, the dog may be better off with a married person since their lifestyle matches the task better. These are all generalizations since there are always exceptions.
I don’t know about trustworthy, but I’d guess that more married men with kids keep to a fairly regular schedule, which can masquerade as responsibility.
Me neither given that I’ve slept with at least one married man (and that was just the one who told me he was married - could be tons more who just didn’t tell me).