The Millennium Spouse

One of the most important wars being waged right now isn't on some foreign battlefield, rather its in households across the U.S., and the fight is between husbands and wives.

According to statistics presented by divorcerate.org, the divorce rate in the U.S. for first time marriages is 41%. It goes on to say that the divorce rate in America for a second marriage is 60% and for a third marriage it is 73%.

Why are these marriages ending? Well there are lots of reasons, but I really want to offer up this as one potential reason. The unfulfilled expectations of these so-called Millennium men and Women.

I'm specifically referring to those individuals that have a distorted view of their spouse's role in the marriage. All too often these individuals heap on unrealistic expectations that their spouse is unable to fulfill or meet.

Consider this. A man comes home from work after an eight or nine hour shift an discovers that his wife, who is a stay at home mom hasn't prepared a meal. When he enters the door he is furious with his wife because she has had all this time on her hands and she has not prepared a anything for him (not just the family, but him) to eat.

On the flip side, she is equally upset with him because he's not considering all she has gone through with the children and with the upkeep of the house.

Now this is a classic conflict, but where do these Millennium men and women attitudes really come into play. They happen when this period of behavior or conflict happens repeatedly.

It happens when the husband always constantly expects a cooked meal without taking into consideration what his wife has done, and when the wife always uses taking care of the children and the household as an excuse in not preparing a meal.

The two each have an unfulfilled and unrealistic expectation.

In the old days, we were taught that our parents went to work and hardly ever complained about the little things in front of us. They worked 12 hours shifts at times and were still able to take care of the children. A hot meal was provided every night and the husband was able to provide a steady and hefty paycheck to support all the family's needs. He never missed a day of work because he was sick and he was always the consummate provider.

In this new age however, we often look at those models as what we want in our spouse, but we are unable to truly follow these models for ourselves. There is no give and take. We just want to take, which causes the Millennium man or woman attitudes to come into play.