Starter Marriage

The Detonator Plus

This weekend I was introduced to the concept of 'Starter marriage'. Even Arnie, an accomplished family therapist who most gracefully let me use his green bowling ball in exchange for mentioning his name on this blog, wasn't familiar with this phenomena.

'Starter marriage' : noun. A first marriage that lasts only a short time and that ends in a clean (i.e., no kids, no property, no acrimony) divorce.
'Starter marriage' plays on the term 'starter house', a the nice little place you move into because you're ready to buy a house, you can afford it, and it seems right for you, at least at the time. And whether or not you admit it to yourself, it's a place in which you don't intend to stay very long.

So why do people 'buy'? People have stated different reasons such as "I bought because it was time to buy, and I thought if I didn't, I would miss my chance". Other people have mentioned "I bought because there were other potential buyers, and I thought I was going to be priced out of the market".

My backdoor neighbors are definitely preparing for their 'starter marriage'. Their lovemaking was so loud this evening that I had to turn up the volume of my new stereo to levels I didn't know it was capable of to suppress their moaning and my envy. I hope they are not going to make a daily routine out of this because I'm sure Arnie would tell me that suppressing is not a good thing to do and a sure cause for future mental problems.