richwklein.com

Indeed Rich, and fair point about discouraging young marriage, considering that kids in their teens and early 20's can smell arbitrary parenting from a mile away, and will often rebel against it. :-)

And being a proud father myself, I concur, naps are worth their weight in gold.

Depending on the study between 60% and 70% of divorces are initiated by the women in the relationship. Most of these studies that I've seen do include other reasons for women filing besides dissatisfaction including custody issues.

While I agree that parents of teen kids should encourage dating with different people, I do disagree slightly with discouraging 20 somethings from marrying. While the 20s are a huge growth time for most people. I see that as an opportunity for people to grow up together and become closer.

I do really think parent involvement is crucial here. They really need to help set expectations about relationships and marriage. They should really take the time to discuss things like romance novels and shows like bridezilla or my super sweet sixteen. How the behaviors in these shows are not appropriate and should not be expected from an actual working relationship. Look at any standard romantic comendy. If any guy behaved like in one of these movies he would end up in jail for stalking and most guys would not behave like that in the first place.

I also think that women should really understand that a man can show his love and appreciating for his wife without a big romantic act. It might be as simple as watching the kids so she can take a nap.

This is going on with a lot of my classmates back home.
So weird.

Yeah, the 7 year itch. I've seen it myself, and I've seen it both ways. Not sure how much to read into the 2/3 figure, I was married once at 22 after living with her for 3 years, divorced with cause at 27, and now am tremendously happy after meeting my sweetheart at 30 and now married at 34. People tend to get married in their early to mid 20's, but a lot changes about a person in their 20's.

I think parents should be encouraging their H.S. age kids to go on dates with different people so they can experience different viewpoints on life and thus better figure out what they want. Some time studying abroad is great too, different cultures view relationships differently. Finally, I think parents should discourage their 21 year old kids from jumping into marriage. Courtship is a beautiful time that shouldn't be rushed.

My $0.02 anyway. :-)