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Strollerderby
“Till death do us part” may soon be revised to “Till this contract expires” for couples getting married in Mexico’s capital.
Mexico City’s progressive legislature is looking to bring down the local divorce rate with a radical proposition: setting a time limit on marriages. Instead of making a life commitment to one another, you can sign on for as little as two years, or as long a time as you like. You’ll have the option to renew your vows, of course.
Half of all marriages end in divorce, and most are over within two years. Shortening the term of a marriage contract gives unhappy spouses a way out while (hopefully) making less paperwork for the courts. But is this really a good idea?
One couple that, in my opinion, is doing it right.
Okay, so, yes. Yes, I watched the Dancing With The Stars two-hour premiere last night and I am going to watch tonight to see who gets kicked off.
I guess the hype got to me.
One of the main things I noted during last night’s show, aside from the fact that my fierce hatred for she-devil Nancy Grace was solidified, was the fact that Courteney Cox and daughter Coco showed up to cheer on David Arquette as he waltzed across the dance floor.
Wait. Aren’t they separated? Why, yes. Yes they are. So why is she on the show cheering him on? Because she’s an adult and the mother of his child, that’s why. Continue reading »
Sometimes, when a marriage falls apart, you just want to go home. This might be especially true if you moved for your partner in the first place: if you’re in an unfamiliar city far from family and friends, the appeal of returning home to your own support network is compelling.
Add in the stress of living in a foreign country, and you can see why you’d be booking the first flight home after something as life-shattering as a divorce. For some ex-pat parents, staying in the foreign country they’ve been living in may not even be an option if they were totally dependent on their partner there.
For some parents, though, it just got harder to take the kids back with you. A British court has just ruled that a Canadian woman cannot return to Canada with her two children following her divorce, because the distance from their father would be too great a detriment to the kids.
A document that provides the security of a million hugs.
Only my 2-year-old son Earl was born in wedlock. My two daughters, now 10 and 6, were sitting in the backseat of the family car when their father and I tied the knot. You can read about our nuptials here, but the short version is that we got married because that was the only way the State of California would cover me, (female) parent of the children they had no problem insuring.
My son, remember, the non-bastard child, is the best sleeper of the brood. He’s also the most cheerful, open to hugging grandparents and babysitters and other children in a way our two girls never were at his age. He loves brushing his teeth, a habit of hygiene that took us years to get his sisters to do voluntarily. Brother Earl eats veggies like a champ.
He’s a good kid, my son. There’s no accounting for the differences between him and his sisters, other than he was born into the security of a documented commitment between his father and me, an agreement that we would form an economic and emotional partnership. My poor girls had to spend the first months or years of life never knowing if, in a legal sense, Daddy was going to come home that night. Continue reading »
Is working worth it if childcare puts you in the red?
Mommyish, a parenting site recently launched by B5 Media, ran an interesting post yesterday titled, “My Babysitter Makes More Money Than I Do.” In it, writer Angela Arsenault admits, “it costs me money each time I write one of these posts,” but, she says, “I don’t care, because sometimes this written thought is the only one I get to complete all day.”
I understand where Arsenault is coming from. Often times the money I make from a stand-up set doesn’t entirely cover the cost of childcare, but I’m so happy to be out of the house and doing what I love that I’ve learned to make it work. (I don’t mean to brag, but comedians typically make anywhere from $20 to a whopping $25 for 10 minutes of work. Never mind that I have to invest three hours including travel time in order to do that 10 minute spot, which means I’m out $5 or $10 in babysitting money.) The idea of “paying to play” got me thinking about whether or not losing money on creative ventures is an integral part of the game, or if allowing ourselves to be financially exploited is a bad habit many women have. Continue reading »
TLC has announced that Kate Plus 8 is in its final season.
People revealed Monday that Kate Gosselin‘s reality show Kate Plus 8, formerly Jon and Kate Plus 8, is currently in its final season. At the end of this season, Kate Plus 8 will have filmed 150 episodes, what TLC calls “an exceptional milestone.” TV’s original reality mom has lost a job, and so have her children.
According to Kate’s twitter feed, the Gosselin children spent Monday morning crying about the show’s cancellation. Kate has long maintained that her children love being filmed, but mental health experts and child advocates have expressed concern for the Gosselin children in the past. Continue reading »
Has your tone changed since kids popped into the picture?
Do you tell your husband everything? Or do you selectively keep some information private?
Everyone has a filter that regularly omits bits of information in our marriages and each of our filters are different. Some edit out shopping excursions, thoughts on his friends, or what we really think of his taste in music and clothes. And husbands, likewise do the same with wives.
Sometimes we do this to spare our spouse’s feelings but sometimes, often in the throws of an argument, we let loose and say things we shouldn’t. We’ve all done it and we’ll probably all do it again one time or another.
Although our individual grievances differ, psychologists often warn us that there are certain things that should never be said.
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