Finding Your Identity in Your Marriage

I never thought much about my life growing up. At times in my adult life when I’ve considered getting married, having kids, I didn’t have anything but my own thoughts at that time to rely on. It’s strange because I’m an obsessive planner for short-term details, but I can’t think of any point in my life when I’ve had a vision for the future. As a kid I always had dreams of what I wanted to be when I grew up: veterinarian, zoologist, reporter for National Geographic Magazine, but those were always just fleeting childhood whimsies. I never pictured myself … Continue reading

5 Topics to Discuss before Marriage

How many couples do you know take the time to discuss money, children and other important issues before they get married? Maybe you jumped right into marriage without seriously considering some of these life-impacting issues. If you or someone you know is considering tying the knot, here are five topics that you should discuss before walking down the aisle. It could save a lot of conflict in the future. The first is children. Do you both want children? Nothing is more devastating than a couple getting married and one expecting to have children but the other one dead set against … Continue reading

My Daughter’s Day Without Her Dad

Planning a wedding is so much fun and so much stress. Other than your own wedding there is no wedding you look forward to more than your daughter’s. You want everything to be perfect. Too bad things don’t always work that way. When I got divorced my ex husband and I struggled to figure out what our relationship should be. After a while we came to the conclusion that we wanted to be the best parents we could be to Hailey. Recently my ex husband has decided that Hailey no longer needs him and he doesn’t need to be a … Continue reading

What Happily Married Couples Do

Today, my husband and I got into an argument. Neither one of us could seem to see the other person’s point of view. While he is a great strength to me, we are both tired, and exhausted much of the time due to raising 3 kids, one of which is a 2 month old, very need baby. In that environment, it is easy to get short with one another, and not realize before it is too late, and we are arguing. Without going into what our fight was about, I will say that we worked it out. We always do. … Continue reading

Funny Quotes about Marriage

Marriage is something we should take seriously—we should be serious in our commitment, in our devotion, in our determination to do our best every day to keep our relationship strong. However, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a little fun with it from time to time—humor is an essential part of any relationship. Here are some funny marriage quotes I found that will hopefully put a smile on your face and help you keep marriage in a lighthearted perspective. A dress that zips up the back will bring a husband and wife together. — James H. Boren A journey is … Continue reading

Fewer People are Getting Married

One of the most important documents that genealogists search for are marriage records. Locating that kind of record is a good way to confirm some of your research. Future genealogists may have problems with this, though, because it seems that fewer people are getting married. Genealogists who are working on their family tree spend a great deal of time attempting to locate copies of certain types of official documents. They look for birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates. One can learn a lot of important information about his or her ancestors from these types of documents. Sometimes, though a … Continue reading

Shape Up, We Can Do It Without You

Over the past few decades we have seen the rapid change in the dynamics of our society. More and more women are going to college, are out in the work field, and climbing the corporate ladder. The problem is that while women are moving up, their male counterparts are doing quite the opposite. I recently read an article on CNN addressing this very issue. In 1950, only 5% of men were unemployed. Just last year the numbers jumped to 20%, the highest ever recorded in history. Women now surpass men in getting college degrees by nearly three to two. Not … Continue reading

Children Turning Parents against Each Other

Children have a funny way of turning parents against each other. It often starts when they are young. They will ask mommy something and if she says no, then they may go to daddy and ask him. If he says yes, then mommy ends up mad and he ends up feeling defensive. Or the same can happen with the roles switched. In a marriage you have to guard against many things. The ability for children to turn spouses against each other is just one of them. It can become even trickier as they get older. Suddenly you are dealing with … 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

Is Marriage Irrelevant?

In the USA fewer adults are married. I would dare to suggest the situation would probably be similar here in Australia. Fewer people are getting married, with many choosing to live alone, or to live with a partner but outside of an official marriage situation. According to a Time magazine survey, almost half of these interviewed have lived with or are currently living with a partner without being married. Does this mean marriage has become irrelevant? Apparently not! Of the total of people involved in the research, 46 percent wanted to get married. Of these 64 percent were already living … Continue reading