Semi-seriously, it’s not who picks it, it’s the fact that divorce and seperation are heavily frowned upon. So people stick with it more than elsewhere.
this is a good thing and a bad thing. On the one hand, my cousin is married to a wife-beater, although she’s recently started standing up for herself. On the other hand, sometimes marriages are happy and love grows after the marriage, like my other cousin and her brand-new hubbie.
From what I remember of the [del]scolding [/del] advice generally handed out to frustrated single guys, including me when I was in this boat, you shouldn’t be looking for a spouse, a mate, even a date as such, but just relating to members of the opposite sex as people. (I’m not sure what gave anyone the impression I was looking to relate to women as, say, brown paper bags. :rolleyes: )
Oh, and you just haven’t met the right one yet.
If this helps, my work here is done. Ciao! :: smiles brightly ::
Not too bad advice - but that only works if you are around people of the opposite sex regularly. My deparatment has two women in it. One married, one 15 or more years older than I. I am not a bar fly, so I don’t hang out at bars. So part of the question is literally: Where do you *find *members of the opposite sex. It was much easier for me 20 years ago.
Anytime I’ve heard a single woman say, " I just want to get married/ find a husband."
All I hear in the subtext that is my mind, " I’m desperate…"
It doesn’t help guys at all that the most popular shows on the tube feature women who are skanky conniving sociopaths ( Sex in the City and Desperate Housewifes.) frankly, if I were a guy, knowing that women were innundated with that, I would be scared.
Well, my girlfriend’s friend asks that very same question all the time. Best I can figure out, the answer is she is:
-fat
-wears too much makeup
-violent
-self centered
-overly possessive
-financially unstable
-spends all her free time (which is excessive) drinking in frat/dive bars
-uncultured
All this paints a pretty miserable picture.
Then again, we have another acquaintance who is:
-about 33
-pretty (strikingly so)
-petite
-smart and educated
-good job
and has the same problem. Except she tends to go for wealthy older guys in their 40s who straight tell her they don’t want to get married
I was thinking along similar lines until I read this:
See, that’s a real turn-off for me. Nothing wrong with money, of course. I wish I had more, so that I could exercise my helicopter certificate and feed my motion picture cameras and travel to other countries whenever I felt like it. But the desire to be in a relationship with someone who is wealthy begs the question ‘Does she love me? Or is she only with me because I have money?’
Wanting to get married before you’re even dating someone may be part of the problem. Marriage is a fine outcome in a relationship, but it doesn’t have to be the only one.
That said, here’s one thing to think about when you’re looking for a husband: Are you friends with any single, straight guys? If so, don’t discount them as “just friends.” That’s how Mr. m and I wound up getting together–we were friends in high school and stayed in touch when we went to college. Our chatty letters turned into 20-page tomes and then into 3-hour phone calls. When I realized that he was THE guy, I was stunned. If I’d met him at a party, I probably wouldn’t have gone out with him–not because he’s unattractive, but because I was busy dating surfers, artists, and wannabe actors. Years later, after we moved in together, I realized that I had unconsciously been comparing all my prospects to him and finding that they were coming up way short. He’s the best person I know.
Wanting to get married before you’re even dating someone may be part of the problem. Marriage is a fine outcome in a relationship, but it doesn’t have to be the only one.
That said, here’s one thing to think about: Are you friends with any single, straight guys? If so, don’t discount them as “just friends.” That’s how Mr. m and I wound up getting together–we were friends in high school and stayed in touch when we went to college. Our chatty letters turned into 20-page tomes and then into 3-hour phone calls. When I realized that he was THE guy, I was stunned. If I’d met him at a party, I probably wouldn’t have gone out with him–not because he’s unattractive, but because I was busy dating surfers, artists, and wannabe actors. Years later, after we moved in together, I realized that I had unconsciously been comparing all my prospects to him and finding that they were coming up way short. He’s the best person I know.