number onecause of divorce (Treas 51). Americans no longer have the fear of being shunned from societyafter a messy divorce. When my mothers parents divorced in 1965, they had to leave theirneighborhood. The entire family was exiled from its catholic church where they were faithfulmembers, and suddenly my grandmother couldnt find a bridge partner in the entire town. I dontfeel that couples who get divorced should be treated as if they have the plague. On the otherhand, our societys nonchalant acceptance of divorce makes it seem as if marriage is not meant tobe a permanent situation for most. Many more couples live together prior to marriage than in thepast (an approximate increase of more than 60%) and these couples are less likely to stay married,probably due to the fact that they are less conservative about marriage and divorce in the firstplace (Stanley 57). It is this less conservative approach that dooms Americas marital future. Another contributing factor in todays divorce rate is simply a lack of respect for marriagevows. They seem to be taken with a grain of salt. No one remembers saying for better orworse, instead they hear, he/she will do until something better comes along, until he/she strays,until his/her ex comes looking for child support, until he forgets to put the toilet seat down, oruntil she hangs her pantyhose in the shower again. While its true that people change long aftertheir marriage vows are said, the vows themselves do not change and people do not realize this. So many Americans approach marriage with a very unrealistic image in their minds. Theyautomatically strive to achieve the average 2.4 children and four bedroom house with a whitepicket fence. Marriage vows are so much easier said than done and now seem so much moreflexible. Americans do not have a grip on reality when it comes to the terms of marriage andtend to adjust their wedding vows to suit themselves. People are also coming into ma...
