Divorces Are Delayed as Real Estate Values Plummet

John Leland's interesting piece in today's NY Times is titled, "Breaking Up is Harder to Do After Housing Fall."

Click here to read the article which describes how some couples are delaying divorce and staying together because there is so little equity remaining in their house to divide up.

Here is the letter I wrote to the editor of the NY Times:
What a fascinating silver lining in the “crashing real estate market”, that couples will think twice or thrice about their divorce plans. I’m not happy about diminished real estate, but I’d be happy (for the affected children especially) if the 50% divorce rate came down a notch.

USA Today's Sharon Jayson Cites Dr. Singer on the Ideal Age for First Marrriage

It's a fascinating topic with many points of view and research studies that point in different directions. I was happy to speak to Sharon Jayson of USA Today about this subject and that she devoted an entire column to it.
To read her column in USA Today click here
Could we please keep this vital discussion going? Please see my Delayed Childbearing post below for my two columns devoted to this topic and thanks for your input.
Dr. Alan Singer

Delayed Childbearing Consequences: Parents Warn Your Adult Children by Dr. Alan Singer

Encourage Children to Start a Family Sooner than Later (First of two parts) was published on 9/5/08. Click here to read it in the Home News (while the link lasts).

Consequences to Delayed Childbearing (second of two parts) was published on 9/19/08. Click here to read it in the Home News (while the link lasts).

You can also read Parts 1 and 2 from my earlier blog post by clicking here (This link will remain).

These columns have generated more debate, by far, than any other topic I have blogged about. Stay tuned for a future column that will describe the irate emails I received.

It's Not About the Flatware: Newsweek "My Turn"

I found this essay in Newsweek to be informative...and a bit disturbing as you can see from the comment I posted to the Newsweek site

Ed Goldman's "My Turn" described the world he plunged into, one in which people "fall in and out of love sequentially". Social scientists also refer to the trend as serial monogamy. His description of he and his wife's first, second, and third marriages is very thorough. But in my 30 years as a family therapist, I get bad dreams from reading scary quotes like, "Our first marriages were relatively brief misjudgments"...yikes!
Thankfully, most couples that I have assisted over the years, care deeply about the enduring and vital institution we know as marriage.

Dr. Alan Singer
www.FamilyThinking.com

Family-Size in the New York Times

Click here to read an interesting article by Virginia Heffernan, that describes a cable tv show about "supersize" families.

I believe that supersize families can certainly be superhealthy families, but it takes resources to do that. Parents have to have the ability to give attention and finances.

What worries me more in Heffernan's article, is her quote from a mother who has two children (a normal American family size) and one on the way. She states, "Most of the time I feel like I'm gonna go insane." My concern and my research obsession is the effects of family size decisions on family wellbeing...more to come in a future posting.

You may click here to read my previous column about a wonderful large family, the Weitzners.