Back to School, Back-out of Marriage

I read with some interest this morning that divorces gather steam as we head into September. According to this ABC News article, the phones at the offices of divorce lawyers begin ringing off the hook in September. The kids are back in school, summer vacations are over, and for many, it’s a trip “back to reality.”

Ok, so statistics are statistics, and they don’t lie. (Though they can very, very often be made to say nearly anything you want. Consider any headline you see that says something like “18% of people believe X”, which also means that the other 82% believe something else.) While the trend is certainly disturbing, even more so (at least to me) was the cavalier attitude of the article. Consider the following direct quotes:

For wealthier families in which one spouse may spend time in a summer home while the other works, the summer can provide a needed respite — and opportunities for what lawyers delicately call “extracurricular activities.”

“People think the rules don’t apply” in the sultry summer months, Hoge said, “but it’s all over when school starts.”

“Extracurricular activities”? The “rules don’t apply in sultry summer months”? Gosh, kinda makes you wonder why these marriages might be in trouble in the first place…

[Read It’s Labor Day, I Want a Divorce]
[Send flowers to your spouse]