Why Do Some Go and Some Stay in Unhappy Marriages?

Expecting to live happier—if not happily—ever after may explain why some people stay in miserable marriages.  Why do some people continue in unhappy unions, while others cut their losses and leave? Partners often look to the future instead of their current state of happiness when they decide to go or stay. Expecting the marriage to improve is a strong motivation to stick around.

First-time parents who are living with sleepless nights and stressful days can see beyond the present to a future that doesn’t revolve around 3 a.m. feedings. Financially struggling college students arguing over money can look forward to their first full-time jobs to bring home real-world paychecks.

Without the hope of better days ahead, chances grow that one dissatisfied partner in a marriage will look around for an alternative. Will he ever stop drinking? Will she always nag about every little thing? The shaky marriage will survive only until the unhappy partner finds a better option. Is there a better fish in the sea? The alterative doesn’t have to be a romantic soulmate. Living alone can seem more appealing than living in a loveless marriage hell.

Some couples look long and hard for alternatives to their unhappy marriages and can’t find them. But they may still decide to stick around even though they do not expect improvement in their marriage. They may find little satisfaction in their relationship, but they look for ways to get past the squabbling and fighting. The lucky ones end up as roommates rather than romantic partners and find happiness in outside platonic friendships or other aspects of life.

It’s not just a lack of appealing alternatives that bind some unhappily married couples together. We’ve come to think of marriage in terms of romance, but the reality is that the arrangement is grounded in the economics of raising a family. That’s why we see so many unhappy couples who stay together for the sake of the children. They move into separate bedrooms and set up separate bank accounts because they want to avoid dividing children in a bitter custody fight.

Religious beliefs hold other unhappy couples together. Some partners fear their church community will frown on divorce, and guilt proves to be a strong martial glue.

Concluding that marriage won’t improve and prospects for the future are better outside a miserable union drives the unhappy apart. The partner who makes that decision is likely to leave and start over looking for another way to be married happily ever after.

Read more: Why Do Unhappy Couples Stay Together?

 

Linda Parham

Linda Parham is a journalist and writer who enjoys creating entertaining blogs. She started out as a newspaper reporter before moving on to editing magazines and newsletters. Linda specializes in writing about beauty, health, fitness, business and politics.

No Comments Yet

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

© 2024 THINK GLAMOR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Your locale for the best advice on
fashion, health, and beauty

MAILING LIST


Subscribe to our newsletter to get exclusive information on today's trends in fashion, beauty, and more!


By clicking submit, I authorize Think Glamor and its affiliated companies to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, (2) supplement the information that I provide with additional information lawfully obtained from other sources, like demographic data from public sources, interests inferred from web page views, or other data relevant to what might interest me, like past purchase or location data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email with offers for goods and services from any category at the email address provided, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here.


Skip to content