Did You Marry the Wrong Guy? Blame Cinderella

I heard an interview not long ago of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore talking about what has kept their marriage alive when so many expected them to divorce by now, and so many similar Hollywood couples don't make it. They made a wonderful observation that bears repeating:

We didn't look forward to getting married, we looked forward to being married!"

It's not about how many guests, what size ring, how elaborate a cake, how expensive the wedding dress is, or what exotic honeymoon you have planned, it's your attitude in how you approach marriage, or even life for that matter.

My marriage has certainly had its rocky moments, those times when a couple is so out of sync with one another that it seems nearly impossible to reconnect, that you both went into it with entirely different expectations of what the other would do when life drastically changed (eg arrival of a baby) and cannot fathom reaching a compromise, and that if life was going to continue the way it was that it was better to walk away from the person we both considered a soulmate rather than face unending pain from that person. Were it not for the absolute unshaken truth that we both hold to our core that we were meant for one another and that no one alive could love either of us more, we probably wouldn't have made it. Only knowing that no other choice in a mate would fight harder to get a relationship back on track, to stay together and work it out no matter how much it hurt right then, is what kept us trying to work things out when they got bad. In those darkest moments, it occurred to me that that is how so many marriages end - at some point almost everyone faces that kind of pain in a relationship, if it's any kind of a deep connection, and without the unwavering belief that you're worse off without that person than with them, I could see how easy it would be for a couple to give up and call it quits.

We do our children a disservice to make light of the strength, endurance, understanding, communication, honesty, compassion, wisdom, tenacity, stubbornness, and forgiveness that is required to make any worthwhile relationship, be it romantic or friendship, withstand the test of time, personality changes, and life circumstances. Disney certainly can't cover all of that in a 2 hour time frame...I think it's left to us parents to lead by good example of having healthy relationships and trying to impart [however much they will absorb] of what we've learned through experience. And point out the misconceptions presented in pretty Disney movies rather than letting them be brainwashed.