My parents were married in 1962 and had me and my brother in 1966. They are still happily married.
My husband’s parents were married in 1956 and are still…married.
(Not quite sure if I can say “happily” as they are the result of an arranged marriage in rural Japan, but they are satisfied with what they have achieved together and are comfortable with each other.)
We have been married for 9 years and are still happy. Hoping it will continue that way for the rest of our lives.
When I was newly married and messing about with my husband, I asked him if he would still love me when I was old, toothless and dribbly. He without a trace of a laugh said, “Yes”.
“How can you know that?” I asked him, and he answered simply,
My parents have been married for 54 years. My in-laws were married for 56, until my father-in-law died. My sister has been married for twenty-four years, my brother for twenty-three, and The Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan and I for twenty-one. My aunt and uncle were married for almost sixty years, my great-grandparents for seventy-one.
Mum and Dad met when they my mum was 18, and he was 21. They married 3 years later. Had my brother two years into their marriage, and two years after that had me. So I guess I’m one of the original nuclear families!
Doesn’t run in my family though. My great granny had my grandmother out of wedlock. Oh the shame!
My grandmother left my grandad and ran off to England with my mum and aunty. (He managed to track them down though). She re-married and they are still together. My grandad never did.
My parents have been married for 52 years. I didn’t come along until 10 years later. They’d planned to have children earlier, but it just didn’t happen until then.
There are no divorces in my family. None. And I was reminded of this repeatedly when my husband and I got engaged. No pressure there!
My parents have been married for 39 years. Dad’s father passed away shortly after his 60th anniversary, and Mom’s parents just celebrated their 65th this past summer. My brother has been married for about 11 years, I think, and I have been married for 5. No divorces or children out of wedlock for any of us. The only divorce I can think of in the family is my aunt, who married very young and divorced a few years later. She has been happily married to her second husband for about 20 years, though.
I was born nine months and ten days after my parents’ wedding day. They’ve been married 37 years – but they should have been divorced a long time ago; the six months that my mom and we kids lived without my dad after she kicked him out were so nice and peaceful . . . but then she let him back, and we went back to the same old same old. They probably should never even have gotten married in the first place. Longevity is not necessarily a good thing.
My parents have been married over 50 years. Even better, they have been 50+ loving and happy (at least as far as the marriage was concerned) years. To this day they are very close and very much in love with each other. Their first child was born about a year after their wedding. Of their five surviving children (originally there were nine, three of whom died young and one who died as an adult), three have been divorced (two remarried), one just celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary, and last and least is me, who has simply dodged the marriage issue altogether by instead living happily in sin with Significant Other cygnus for 13 years and counting. I feel incredibly lucky to have had parents with a great marriage, and even luckier to still have them around to enjoy today. You don’t have the perspective and awareness to really admire such a marriage when you are a child, but you sure do once you grow up.
Parents definately should have divorced; grandparents should have divorced; brothers an asshole; aunts and uncles ought to have killed each other before filing.
My family - no divorces among me, my siblings (2), my parents (2, duh!), their siblings (3), my grandparents (4), or their siblings (too many to remember, about 12). You’d have to branch out to cousins before you’d find a divorce and I can only think of one example then. We may be boring, but we’re stable.
My wife’s family - all siblings and step siblings divorced at least once (1 sibling, 5 step siblings), mother divorced once, father divorced 4 times. My wife is the only one among them who has never divorced.
My wife and I have formed our own nuclear family. We’ve been married for 18 years. She stayed home with the kids, until the youngest was old enough that I pushed her to find a job that wasn’t on weekends. Neither my brother nor my sister have divorced. No set of parents on any side divorced. (Sadly, my poor kids only have one grandparent left.) My mom’s brother is happily married, as are 10 of my dad’s 12 siblings.
We are not all Ozzie and Harriet though. I’m the guy my wife chose after learning who she didn’t want to be married to. (Her ex must have really screwed up, because she just is pretty damn stable. And persistent.)
My husband and I do, both sides. Well, his father passed away, but his mother and he were married for a long time- at least 30 years. My parents have been married for about 38 years, no splits or separations. Allan had never been married before we wed, and I have ruined the record, since I was married once when I was younger and have been divorced.
My side of the family, parents married in June 1962, first kid born in April 1963, did the “til death do us part” thing (Dad died in October 1995).
All siblings married with children, except eldest sister (the 1963 baby) is now divorcing her husband. They haven’t been happy for a long time - Mark, my brother-in-law, says he’s been sleeping on the living room floor for two years - so it was hardly a surprise to my hubby and I (married 9/11/99, no kids).
Hubby’s side of the family…
George is the result of his mom’s first marriage to a putz who cut of all communication with him when he was 7. Mama married Papa and not only had three more babies with him, but Papa has been more of a father to Georgie than Sperm Doner ever was. One sibling is married w/infant (14 months after wedding), one is engaged and one is single.
THings were always good between my parents (“tough times” usually involved financial issues) and Mama got it right the second time. With the exception of my eldest sister, everyone seems pretty darn happy.
Parents married three years before I was born (and I’m their eldest), stayed married until my father’s death … seems mostly to run in the family, though I have one aunt and a couple of cousins who’ve been (ahem) irregular.