Valentine’s Day looms large this month – scarier than Halloween for some singles. It is a good day if you are thinking about popping the question…or maybe you already did! Maybe you have been thinking about the wedded bliss to be had by entering into a lifetime contract with another person. It comes automatically with a thousand privileges and rights relating to your relationship—the same rights that would require as many separate contracts, if not for marriage!
Maybe you haven’t given all that much thought to personal property, private space, or privacy itself, but totally merging with person and sharing personal power might not be for everyone.
When there are children involved either in the future or coming together by the joining of experienced hands in marriage, their well-being has to be considered in the mix of issues confronting newlyweds.
As usual the internet is the source of endless stories about the fine art of splitting up, including some of the craziest reasons husbands and wives end marriages.
One man realized it was over when his wife asked him how he liked his coffee – every day for seven years. Another man asked his wife to check a lottery ticket he pinned to the fridge. (He had bought it as a joke, using the previous day’s winning numbers.) Believe it or not, she told him it was not a winning ticket, then disappeared with the ticket and their two small children. Looks like the handwriting was on the fridge wall, too. She came back mad, but he was the one who filed!
Couples split over trivial and desperately annoying peculiarities too, like whether the salt shaker stays on the table or goes on the windowsill after meals, what to feed the cat, the live-in mother who is one backrub too close to her son, faking illnesses such as terminal cancer, the lack of chest hair, and Star Wars versus Star Trek.
That one is definitely irreconcilable.
The surface reasons for breakups can be wildly funny or heartbreakingly tragic -for as many differences as there are between people. The secret to staying together is to simply not care about those little things and appreciate the things you have in common. Refusal to reconcile is about a deeper incompatibility. (Perhaps discovering a spouse will try to steal all of the lottery winnings is a perfect time to cut losses.)
When things really hit bottom though, and it is time to throw in the marital towel, calm, professional legal help makes all the difference.
Greg Gouner has been practicing family law in south Louisiana for nearly 25 years. Greg and his experienced legal staff can guide you towards the best outcome possible. Call the Gouner Law Office today!
Written by Ted Baldwin
