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Almost every single American (non-Asian/Hispanic) I meet either in gaia or in real life have divorced parents. I'm still learning about this country, and I dont want this stereotype to crowd my mind.

But kindly argue against me why does this country seem so sex crazy, divorce-happy and seemingly unsatisfied in its affluence.

I've recently been to a golden aniversary of my (Asian) family friends.. it was one of the most touching and beautiful moments of their lives, it seems, with all the photographed memories and family vids shown on that yacht trip. Happy families together, one love till death do they part...

But I bet Americans think this love ideal is crap, no? Billboards say, "Life is short, get a divorce." I wonder if this individualistic culture can find other souces of happiness besides sex 3nodding Your partner gets old, get a younger one twisted Oh what fun! (yes, I'm forcing you peeps to give a strong counter-argument basd on personal experience) rolleyes

I'm American (and non-Asian or Hispanic), and my parents are still together. My older sister has been married for a few years and she's still married as well. No one's been divorced on either my mother's or father's side of the family, now that I think about it. And I can only think of four close friends whose parents are divorced or separated. But, all this aside:

While it's true that married couples are a minority in America, I don't think it's because we're all obsessed with sex. XD While we do live in a sex-saturated society, I don't think that's the core problem. I think the media has warped the meaning of love and marriage, they show it as something "temporary", they depict having multiple marriages in one's lifetime to be "normal". I know all Americans don't feel that way, but because we're bombarded by these images in magazines and on the TV a lot of people are corrupted by it.

I think it also has a lot to do with the way you're raised. If you're raised in a home with parents who aren't as loyal to each other as they should be, you may be more prone to grow up and think that that's normal behavior.

My grandpa (maternal) died at 75 just shy of the 50 year wedding anniversary he would have loved with my grandma. She is still in love with him eventhough he's dead. They were like newlyweds up until the very end.

My dad's side of the family is different. His parents have stayed together 50 years and desperately hate each other for it.

I would argue that circumstances can contribute greatly to divorce, and not just during the marriage, but before as well.

In this country I think there are alot of circumstances that make it exceptionally difficult for couples, and not just social or financial expectations, but what we are taught to expect from our lovers which I think at times is highly unrealistic and uncompromising.

The proof of this influence of the media was rather simply put in my Speech class. "Name five movies in the past ten years that have shown a married couple having really good sex." By the way, my professor that I had is a movie critic. There isn't that many that have been made. Just my thoughts.

I think the situation of the high divorce rate is a worldwide situation. I'm not in the US, but in my country this year we had one of the highest divorce rates in history. I think the problem is younger generations all around the world are simply taking marriage less seriously.

In my personal experience, my parents are still married after 24 years, shich is odd, taking in mind that my uncle just got divorced and he had being married for 26 years (cheating involved).

I suppose that for it must be very difficult for married couples in modern times to stay together, or simply, like I said they are not completely set on the compromise.

Updated.

My ex's -non Asian, non Hispanic- grandparents have been together for almost 50+ years. Try that on for size. My -non Asian, non Hispanic- great grandparents have been together for 60ish years, and they still flirt like teenagers.

Apparently the divorce rate in the US recently dropped down to 30-something%, the lowest its been since the '70s. I heard this on MSNBC, I don't know who they were quoting.

To follow the "American way" is to be "independent". Your spouse isn't your other half, they're just a partner you've chosen for the time being. Women that dare to stay home to take care of the kids, cook, clean, and nurture their husbands are oftentimes loathed for it by the rest of this society for being too "weak and submissive" to spend their time and energy on a career. If a husband cares more about his wife's wants and needs than he cares about his freedom to act like a bachelor, he gets called whipped. If a woman cares more about her husband's wants and needs than she cares about her freedom to act like a bachelor, she's labeled as being "anti-women's rights."

We've also been spoiled with instant satisfaction. Your spouse is supposed to be beneficial to you, and, should the relationship suddenly need actual work and sacrifice, you should just get rid of them and find someone new to please you. Marriage isn't a long-term commitment if you don't want it to be. Why should you bother even being sure that you want to be with the person you're with when you marry them? Ever thought about bachelor parties? They're celebrations of you last few moments of freedom before you make the horrible sacrifice of being faithful to a single person. And don't forget all the marriages that are the result of a child being born. There are plenty of people that think that a child needs to know their parents are married in order to be capable of growing up to be a healthy adult. It doesn't matter how much the parents hate each other, they get married anyway, as if that piece of paper makes up for the terrible example of what relationships are like that they are showing their kid.

There isn't anything sacred about marriage in the minds of many people in the US. More and more, I'm meeting people that don't want to get married, because its just a tax write-off to them, and not worth the hassle should they ever decide to part ways with the person they're with. They may intend to be with that person forever, but don't see any point to getting hitched.

My parents got married when I was a year old, only because my dad decided it was the "proper" thing to do. They split up when I was 11. I wish they had never gotten married. I hated dealing with how much they hated each other.

I was born and raised in the US. I have no problem with divorce. Regardless, when I say my vows in 2 months, it won't be my way of saying "Hey, I like you right now." It will be my way of saying "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I will fight as hard as I can to ensure that that will happen. And I want the rest of the world to know that I am yours, completely yours, and you are mine."

My mother's been married three times, and living with a 4th live-in boyfriend/permanent fiancé at the moment; I've been a latchkey kid since I was 12 and I've considered myself the child of a single parent my entire life.

My father was an alcoholic and finally drank himself to death when I was five; she'd divorced him two years previous, for obvious reasons.

When I was about six or seven she married my first stepfather; she divorced him after he financially ruined them both by wrecking his cars and getting DUI's, and started accusing her of cheating on him with everyone she knew-- I think the last straw was when he accused my mom of having a lesbian affair with one of my friend's mothers, Maria. (My mom's just shy of homophobic and thinks all gays are screwed up in the head.)

Then, when I was thirteen, she married a big fat ******** who liked to beat his kids. He did horrible things to me and my stepbrothers, and made a point of lying to my mother about things I'd done wrong, so that she wouldn't believe me when I told her about the things that he'd done. We left about 7 years ago. She still doesn't believe me. She's still waiting on the divorce papers because he won't sign them.

And why did she keep falling for these jerks, you ask? Because she was chasing an American dream that wasn't real.

Some people just have s**t luck and bad judgment when it comes to choosing a spouse. People like my mom get suckered into the idea that marriage is a perfect union between husband and wife; they want to settle down and have those 2.5 kids and a white picket fence but they don't realize how outdated and unreasonable that is. They go into it expecting everything to suddenly turn magical and wonderful when the priest says "You may kiss the bride," and then they're shocked when the wonderful friend they've been dating slowly becomes a horrible spouse. So they last as long as they can and then they hang it up and give it another go.

At least, that's how it's always seemed to me.