Understanding the Male Attitude towards Divorce

When Chet mentioned he had a 'problem' I suspected it concerned divorce.

It was not that I knew his past or much of his present it was how he asked me.

In most cases, unless it is recent adultery on her side, men don't care whether or not they have legally divorced the woman they no longer live with..

It's their subsequent girlfriends who care.

A man will let years role by until his current girlfriend is pregnant or putting terrific pressure on him to marry her.

One can tell the guy who really wants a divorce.

He comes to a lawyer's office. He comes with his marriage certificate, with money. He pays most of the fees if not all. Then is constantly phoning; "Is it ready, yet?"

The guy who btw mentions it at some cocktail party, isn't interested.

I listened to Chet, and made my 'ticks' and wasn't wrong.

Months passed.

I heard nothing from Chet. I got nothing from Chet. Not a document, not a phone call, and not a dollar. Then, a copy of his marriage certificate arrived.

I made a rough draft of a divorce petition and emailed it for Chet to fill in the blanks.
A few months passed.

As we drifted in the same circles I eventually saw his current girlfriend.

There are some men who splash through their teens and twenties as 'All That' ;
good looking, clever, great to be around.

These men gravitate towards the best looking women in the room, blind to any female who couldn't walk a runway.

Some men don't hit their prime until their thirties. They've spent their lives talking to the 'what's left' because they wouldn't dare approach a halfway pretty girl for fear of rejection.

These late bloomers don't immediately realise how striking they have become.

Chet was one of those who had just come into his own and was just beginning to appreciate that he was far more than he'd thought. Although his first wife was not bad looking she was average. She put a lot of work into her appearance, the expensive hair style, the make up, the fingernails, the good clothes.

She was far better looking, (even if you washed her face and pulled her hair back in a pony tail) then his current girlfriend.

The woman Chet was currently involved with resembled the Pillsbury Doughboy.

However, she had money, she had position, and if he were the 'old' Chet, he might think she was the best he could do.

But the 'New' Chet was someone who could walk up the prettiest girl in the room and she'd smile.

He hadn't bothered to divorce his first wife, although they'd been apart over seven years, because there was no reason.

Now, as his new woman was pregnant, pressuring him to divorce Number One, he made lame attempts.

As long as he was married he couldn't marry Ms Doughboy, and he didn't want to marry Ms. Doughboy.

Yes, he liked her money, he liked her position, he even liked the baby she bore him, but to marry her now, to settle on her now, when he might be able to get a woman who was 'all that' caused him to pause.

Ms. Doughboy, tired of the delays, now approaches.

She will pay for the Divorce.

She hands over a wad of cash, so the 'draft' becomes an actual document Chet must serve on his current wife.

How long he will take to serve this document might alert Ms. Doughboy that he doesn't want to marry her. That is, if she is able to recognise that although she may love him, he does not love her.

Of course, with a toddler to mind she might think marriage is necessary and force Chet to go through with the divorce.

Or, she might appreciate that although he will take her money and enjoy the rarefied environment she introduced him to, he doesn't want to be with her.

When a couple separates and neither moves for Divorce the question is 'Why?'

Inaction of the parties suggests that there is no impetus to dissolve the marriage. As years pass and neither makes an effort, it is a flag neither sees the reason to sever ties.

It is not so much the idea of reconciliation, it is the desire not to be in a position to remarry. Thus they opt for the status of marriage without the marriage.

Women who get involved with men who have neglected to divorce their wives have gotten involved with a man who has no intention of marrying again.

These men like the 'protection' of marriage so that any woman is the 'Other'. T Women who date them take them with that 'impediment'.

If a woman is interested in a fling or a part time lover or a hook up, he is perfect. But falling in love with such a man is contraindicated. He doesn't want to get married again. He likes not being able to get married.

Hence Chet doesn't want to marry Ms. Doughboy.

If she pays for the Divorce and forces him to get it, she will have to pay for the wedding and then, her own divorce when it becomes clear that he has no intention of being a husband..

When a couple separates and makes no move for reconcilliation nor attempts to gain a divorce, it is clear that they do not wish to marry again.

Many men don't go for a divorce because they don't want to marry the female they are with. They may shut them up for a time by claiming they 'spoke' to a lawyer, but unless that female is rabid and pressures him, he is not going through with it.

Ms Doughboy paid for everything, and he married her, and he took him to her country as a souvenir.

So there he is, thousands of miles away, being supported by a woman who he really wouldn't want to be found dead with.