Marriage Should Work Like An Apartment Lease: Renew It Each Year
This might make marriage less complicated.
4 PM production / ShutterStock Back when I was a young girl, my father used to tell me about how Celts used to renew marriages every seven years.
Back in the day, I was totally flabbergasted by the thought that people would just have a review of the relationship and choose to part ways after a certain number of years.
As I got older, I began to see why people might want to review their marriage and part ways after a number of years.
With the way things are, I'm beginning to wonder whether or not marriage should be a "til death do us part" thing.
Here's why there should be regular renewal marriages:
1. It gets rid of cold feet
A lot of people feel like marriage is too permanent a thing, or feel like a divorce would cause them to lose too much.
Assuming that marriages that are regularly renewed would have ways to split things totally evenly, it might end up convincing more people to get married.
By removing the permanency of it and also reducing the impact of divorce, more people might be interested in a committed relationship.
2. A lot of relationships always end up running their course
Having a regularly renewed marriage would make it easier to break up amicably, wouldn't it?
3. It makes couples work harder to keep each other's love
Nowadays, it seems like a lot of people tend to stop putting in the effort once they put a ring on their finger.
If they knew it could all end once their spouse reviews the marriage and decides not to renew, wouldn't they want to work harder?
4. Renewable marriages take the financial issues out of divorce completely
Marriage, as it is right now, is just as much a business transaction as it is a declaration of love. If marriage became an annual or decade-long commitment, laws would have to be put into place to handle finances if the couple decides not to renew.
These laws might be fairer to both men and women and may also encourage a healthy level of independence.
5. It would force couples to think about their marriages in a more objective manner, on a regular basis
When couples no longer worry about being there "til death," they are able to worry about other aspects of the relationship that may need improvement.
If you assume permanency, it might make some couples assume they don't have to make an effort to keep the relationship intact because the other partner is happy that they're taken.
6. Lastly, it would encourage independence
Codependent relationships are almost never healthy, and in many cases, marriages can cause really unhealthy dynamics in a family.
When the option to avoid renewing a marriage is on the table, both parties would be more likely to keep a certain level of social and financial independence.
This in turn could make families a lot stronger.
Ossiana Tepfenhart is a writer whose work has been featured in Yahoo, BRIDES, Your Daily Dish, New Theory Magazine, and others.
