thoughts

Why do some parents leave their children? Move far away from them, move next door, but be far away. How do they do it? How can they stay away from the one thing that should matter the most to them? I wonder sometimes what the consequence of all these divorces will be. Will people in the future keep getting married and divorced and married again and divorced again? Or will it go the other way most people not getting married at all, yet changing partners just as easily? Or will we all turn more cautious - looking for the 'perfect' partner until we're in our late forties, never settling for anything less than what we think is best for us. My parents are not married, but they both have been before, before I came along, but they are still together. Maybe it has something to do with the age they are at or maybe they were just meant to be together. The trend among my friends at least is not to get married, yet many of them have had long term relationships from an early age, say end of their teens. However, most of those relationships don't last into the late twenties and most don't get married. Are we becoming too picky? Are we less likely to compromise these days? Going back to my first questions of children and parents - I know as a woman that most of my friends wait until they are older to have them. Still it seems that it isn't important whether or not they stay together, ie. the parents. Most of my friends have been in that situation though, their partner or themselves have been pregnant, most of them opt for the quick fix solution. Only two of my friends have kept the baby, but both live separately from the other parent. About 20-30 years ago this was unthinkable, what has changed? And is it related to the divorce numbers? I wonder...