Trends:Are Short-Term Marriage Becoming More Commonplace in America?
In today’s world of instant everything from microwave meals to fast-food diets and Internet surfing for quick answers, it should come as no surprise that short-term marriages are increasing as well.Tune in on any given day to your favorite news channel and you’ll no doubt encounter yet another story of a celebrity couple’s marriage crashing on the rocks.
Who can forget these short ones: Britney Spears and Jason Alexander were wed all of 55 hours. That’s less than three full days. Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley made it three months while Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney lasted four months before they annulled their marriage.
Attorneys around the country are finding it isn’t just Hollywood that’s into short-term marriages. New York Attorney Bernard Rothman said he finds that couples age 20 to 35 frequently tend to divorce after only one to two years of marriage. “Many have ruined a good cohabitation or friendship by marriage,” he said. “The reality of REAL day-to-day marital obligations take hold. The wife no longer agrees to the same freedoms for her husband as she did when he was her boyfriend; and the husband chafes at the restrictions lamenting that she is not the same woman he lived with.”
Rothman, who authored the book, “Loving & Leaving, Winning at the Business of Divorce,” has been married 54 years. “The desire to work out problems to preserve our marriage is important,” he said. “But today, people approach marriage differently. Their philosophy is, ‘if it isn’t smooth, we’ll just get out.'”
Father’s Rights Attorney Jeffrey Leving said though there has been a decline in the divorce rate, people shouldn’t look to that as a sign that marriages are lasting longer. He said the decline in the divorce rate is a direct result of fewer people marrying. “There’s a lot of paranoia today surrounding marriage relationships,” he said. “Girls are taught that men are not necessary as fathers, except physically. And men are taught as boys that they will lose their children and have to pay child support, so fewer people are getting married in the first place.”
Family Law Attorney Ann Thompson agrees with Rothman and Leving that there are an awful lot of very short marriages today.She attributes the trend to couples entering into marriages inappropriately. “Sometimes it’s because they travel in groups,” she said. “They vacation in groups, and they get on the bandwagon and get married in groups.”
So it would seem the nation is reflecting the Hollywood trend — if it isn’t working — get out.
About the author: Brooky Brown is an award-winning writer and editor who has worked in Ohio andIndiana and now works and resides in Florida.
