Because I have a really long drive to school and back, I am basically in L<3ve with 104.1 KRBE. Every morning that have some kind of interesting topic that always keeps me amused. This morning, unfortunately when the radio started going out, they began talking about people that are married and yet live in separate houses.According to the 2006 United States Census, 3.2 MILLION people are married and yet live in separate houses. That is a LOT of people! So, Ryan ... who seems to have the same views as I do about a lot of things, started saying how he just couldn't imagine not living in the same house with his wife and his daughter. That the though of something like that makes it hard for him to breathe. While Roula and Producer Eric were more interested in Why this was going on as opposed to "Why would you NOT live together."
They had a few people call in, but I was only able to listen to three of them.
Caller 1: Lives in Houston with her children, while her husband lives in San Antonio. They originally lived in Dallas when they first got married (and they've been married for only three years), but when he got his new job, she didn't want to move to San Antonio with him ... she wanted to move back home to Houston. He comes home maybe every other weekend ... and she says that he when he does come home it's usually pretty nice. She says that it keeps the spark in their marriage. Ryan immediately jumps all over it asking why she didn't want to move with him or why didn't they talk about it more and have him not take that job. She was like "Well, who am I to say what job he can take or not ... or who is he to tell me where I should move." Ryan mentioned the fact that "they are in a marriage and that involves compromise, that's 'who you are, his wife'."
He then took off the stipulations of not being able to live together for a job.Like if he had to provide for his family and he HAD to move all over the place and he wanted his family to continue to have a steady home life and not have his kids move around a lot then he would do the same. However, I personally think that those people were just being selfish. He was right in the first place ... a marriage is a compromise. If Aaron were to get a job somewhere else ... even if I had a job here ... I would move with him and I know that he would do the same for me. I couldn't live with out having him come home to me every night. Even if I did get to see him every other weekend. We mine as well just be dating!
Caller 2: She lives in the Woodlands and her husband lives in Washington D.C. He IS in the military and that is why he is over there ... how ever she does not want to move out there. I didn't catch how long they had been married but I don't think that it was very long. He comes home when he can ... and he will definitely be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She also said that this was really good for their relationship, and that it keeps the spark in their marriage. However, why get married to the guy if you don't want to move up there and be with him. I mean ... if I were marrying someone in the military I would want to be with them as much as possible, especially if there was a possibility that he were to be going off to war. I guess that maybe she is trying to distance herself from him in case something like that happens ... but once again ... this just does not feel like a marriage!
Ryan again decided that he "supposed" people that were in military relationships didn't have to live with each other either ... but he still couldn't understand the novelty of being married and not living with each other.
Caller 3: A girl called in whose mother and step father live in separate houses, but in the same sub-division! When asked why they did that ... she said that they just fought all of the time and that they couldn't stand being together. But now, they have little dinner dates on the weekend and it just seems to be so much better for their relationship. Meanwhile, the wife is cleaning two houses, paying all of the bills, washing all of the clothes, etc. So it seems to ME that the guy has a cleaning lady that he gets to bang on the weekends whenever he wants too. THIS IS NOT A MARRIAGE! The woman has already been divorced once ... I wonder what her reasons were for not doing it again? I wonder why she got divorced with her first husband ... and what makes this guy that much better that they'll pay two mortgages??
So, what are your views on the issue? Would you ever live in separate houses from your husband? Do you even consider this a marriage? Do you think that this is possibly the cure for the rising divorce rate??
