Every marriage goes through many stages. With time, changes occur in the needs and expectations of spouses from each other. According to a theory, after seven years of marriage couples supposedly go through “a seven year itch”, which arises owing to factors like no children or grown children and the need to have some personal time and space.
Another theory suggests that couples tend to divorce somewhere in the fourth year of marriage. By this time they’ve had a single child. The theory suggests that humans can possibly have a partner out of social bond, but may not stick with that partner for their entire life and can quickly move to another partner. Interestingly, there are many couples that remain married forever and raise their children together.
Sometimes, partners may face issues with commitment if they feel that the responsibilities of a cooperative relationship, like having children and co-parenting, have surpassed its benefits. This may prompt them to take a drastic step and call it off.
Romantic love is supposedly the main force that keeps relationships intact, although it might be irrational. People in love want to be together under all circumstances. Their relationships are more successful than the ones that are entered into for benefit or exchange.
There are objections to this theory. One objection raises the question if romantic relationships have same commitment issues like any other business relationship, then why there is absence of romantic relationship between business partners to fix their commitment problems? Secondly, irrational feelings cannot possibly create more stable relationships than rational ones. Finally, there is no time frame for this love to last.
Love is at best a stage in a relationship. It is possible that couples start out loving each other, but with time it gradually weakens. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t have any love to begin with.
