To or Not to get married is the key question now. Time may be ripe for pre-marriage counselling. Relationships need to be handled with care. Current life styles may have made the relationships “fragile” .
Nurturing, maintaining and handling emotions with care is need of the hour.
Is all well with the day-to-day conversations with growing-up/grown-up children?
Youth today are struggling with information expolsion, indecision related to getting married and having families. While economic empowerment and financial independence has strengthend women, the side effects may have disturbed the idea or institution of marriage.
Why is there a fear of responsibilities or long-term commitments? Are there over-expectations between potential partners? One needs to be understand, practice and remember that manaing any relationship is a two way process of mutual care, understanding and respect. The attitude of “I control you” will definitely be a spoilsport.
Conversations within families are becoming difficult. There is comparison all around. Statements like “When we were so and so, we lived like this and that” have become irrelevant. Such comparisons have become a big no-no, something that parents and grandparents keep repeating with children. But the reality hurts. Society is changing, rapidly too.
Social media has taken over the way we think, act, eat, drink or even form basic opinions about our political preferences. That also means that the distractions are taking youngsters and youth staying clearly away from formal relationships called the Institution of Marriage! and if at all they decide, it is their choice, their place their way of rituals if at all there is any.
Young couples are going with the flow, even to the extent of tying the knot thinking out of the box, and breaking the established norms e.g., getting married while flying high in a Helicopter! 🙂
Does your mind question why there is a long queue in courts for marital disputes? Did the lesson that said “all that glitters is not gold” go missing?
Cearly it is because of changing norms that have empowered and made women equal, smarter, or economically more empowered than men in relationships. This fact cannot be ignored. So, is ‘ego’ the culprit?
The term “wife and husband” may have now changed to being called “Partners – EQUAL Partners”. A fact that needs to be accepted and respected.
Time may be ripe for pre-marriage counselling “look before you leap” for the couples deciding to enter into formal relationships, particularly so when the Parents and elders have no role to play anymore – even in rituals that have been taken over by the dictated style of wedding event management agencies.
So how can pre-marriage Counselling help?
Perhaps “confidentially” it gives a peep into the future, the expected gives and takes, creating a deeper understanding and adjusting the expectations between the couple.
Equipping ourselves is always a good option. Knowledge is power and adjusting expectations may help strengthen relationships.
Sivaram
