SEVEN YEAR ITCH
Originally uploaded by Accidental Hedonist
In her quest to become the new leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union Party, Gabriele Pauli has given a press conference in which she claims to have a solution for “the seven year itch”. She is apparently proposing that marriages should have a shelf life of seven years only, unless they take place in Church where “till death us do part” should still apply.
At first glance this does not sound like a policy likely to attract votes from divorce lawyers. However, trying to think through the ramifications in a society where like ours the divorce rate hits approximately 1 in 3 marriages, is engaging. Imagine the consequences if all change after seven years became the norm.
Children would be shifted from extended family to extended family with all kinds of half and full blood relations. A couple who wanted to stay together might go through the motions anyway to redistribute capital between them before signing up to a new pre nuptial agreement and then proceeding with the whole marriage thing again. There would also be a risk of increasing domestic dispute or even blackmail as the seventh anniversary approaches “If you don’t get that tiling in the bathroom finished, quit all those nasty hobbies and take me on the holiday of a lifetime, I won’t be signing on the dotted line and you won’t be getting any more of my apple crumble for dessert.”
What would happen to those people at the receiving end of a spouse who itches after three years instead of seven? Would there be any point in marriage at all?
Gosh I reckon there’s only one thing certain, the lawyers would remain in business after all.
At first glance this does not sound like a policy likely to attract votes from divorce lawyers. However, trying to think through the ramifications in a society where like ours the divorce rate hits approximately 1 in 3 marriages, is engaging. Imagine the consequences if all change after seven years became the norm.
Children would be shifted from extended family to extended family with all kinds of half and full blood relations. A couple who wanted to stay together might go through the motions anyway to redistribute capital between them before signing up to a new pre nuptial agreement and then proceeding with the whole marriage thing again. There would also be a risk of increasing domestic dispute or even blackmail as the seventh anniversary approaches “If you don’t get that tiling in the bathroom finished, quit all those nasty hobbies and take me on the holiday of a lifetime, I won’t be signing on the dotted line and you won’t be getting any more of my apple crumble for dessert.”
What would happen to those people at the receiving end of a spouse who itches after three years instead of seven? Would there be any point in marriage at all?
Gosh I reckon there’s only one thing certain, the lawyers would remain in business after all.
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