I thought “practice makes perfect”? Shouldn’t he be better at this marriage thing by now?
December 12, 2006
Can you be a serial marriageist?
I just talked to my one of my former coworkers. He’s overworking, as usual, and I asked if his latest wife wasn’t supposed to keep him from doing that. Turns out she turned the tables on him a bit and left him six months ago when she decided that at her age (mid-30’s) she wanted to have another baby. Her age and the baby thing isn’t so much a problem, but his age (60) and existing number of kids (4) would be, one would think. I knew the age difference was going to get in the way at some point but, geez, I thought this would be something that you’d talk about before marriage, especially since she’s the same age as his eldest.
I wouldn’t imagine that this is something you can just *convince* your hubby about after marriage. Besides, there are all sorts of things to consider about having kids at such a late age, being around for one thing. He’s already going to have to work ’til he drops to paying child support for his younger kids. Having a new baby at the age of 60 means he’ll have to work at LEAST until he’s what, 80? And then you get to say “Sorry kid, you’re on your own for college; your dad isn’t Hugh Hefner.” [Then again, being able to tell your kid that Hugh Hefner’s not his papa? Priceless. ‘Cause I mean, yuck!] Not that I plan to put my kids through college, but expecting him to support another dependent at an age when he very well may need care doesn’t seem realistic.
In any case, you would think that he would have learned that divorce is expensive by now. It only cost him his previous two houses before.
Some people believe they can convince their loved one of just about anything. They don’t want to give up on a relationship they’ve invested so much in over this little thing that they want so much they can’t understand why anyone else wouldn’t want it.
But I think it would be really unfair to a kid to have a father who’s 78 at his high school graduation.. it’s statistically likely he wouldn’t even make it that far. It’s devastating for any kid to lose a parent when they’re that young, but when you have kids when you’re that old, you’re practically guaranteeing it.
Prenup! š hehe. Just kidding!
Maybe he’s a true romantic at heart – re-marriage is after all, the triumph of hope over experience.
Kira: I suppose it’s a good thing they even had the conversation/disagreement instead of having her just go off birth control secretly and getting pregnant JUST BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO.
Wanda: Who’s kidding?? He TOTALLY should have had a prenup and shared out some of his existing child alimony š Seriously, I can’t tell if he thought this was going to finally work out or what. Besides, isn’t that the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result?