Fractured Families

[manicscousers]

we've been married for 37 years this year, my sister was married for 18 yrs, then had a child, after 2 years, her husband decided he didn't want to share her and walked, he has told her it is too expensive to divorce!!!  :o
my eldest son was with his partner for 9 years and he wanted to be married before they had children. my daughter was with her partner and got caught  with her first, they'd only been together 2 years, he was 5 when they decided to get married, However, I always felt they were as committed to each other as we are  ;D

[manicscousers]

[Kea]

My kids get to spend their holidays with their Dad.....and they're happy I left.

[rosebud]

Interesting thread this, we celebrated our 48th anniversary last week, & our 3 children are all married, happy as far as i can see they always seem happy with there lives so that makes us happy.
I woulden`t be without my husband for any amount of gold , he is truely my hero, which always makes my daughters laugh when i say it.

For those couples who are not married i think if that makes them happy & content so be it, good luck to them they must know what they want. ;D

[saddad]

It's not really a new thing... both my parents were "single parents" before they hitched up. My dad had a daughter by a woman who spent all the money he saved while on active service abroad during WW2, she nearly got away with it he got both his legs broken in March '45. My mum had a child out of wedlock in the '50's. They had three more children together ( five actually one was a twin that died as they were very prem, the other miscarried in the third trimester) I'm the middle one. They split the month after my GCE's, the divorce took longer... but it had been on the cards for a decade... she had left him in the '60's but had to go back lacking support from even her parents... It just gets a higher press profile now we can blame the permissive '60's....  :-X

[OllieC]

Good post, saddad!

[Psi (Pronounced 'Si'!)]

society changes, people change with it - better or worse, the majority of us try and do the best we can.

Saddad, spot on - what about the number of babies conceived out of wedlock in 1945?  Shocking!

[carrot-cruncher]

From my own family's perspective:

My brother lives with a divorcee who has 3 kids from her 1st marriage.   brother & partner had a baby six months ago which is brother's first child

I do not have/have never had a husband/partner/fella etc & don't (so far) feel the need for one

Sister is married to a bloke 39 years older than herself & they have a kid.  She also has a kid from a previous relationship & he has kids, g.kids & g-g.kids from his previous two marriages.

Our parents have (somehow) been together for 45 years.

My greatest "concern" (for want of a better word) regarding all these family permutations is that you could end up with half-siblings inadvertently partnering up & therefore, unknowingly breaking the incest laws.

Add in IVF with egg &/or sperm donors & you don't know who you are setting up with.

It all makes the mind boggle.

CC