I wrote "THINK", not "POSTED" or "SAID." Personally, I've met three people who have posted on this thread, RM95. I know two on a personal level.
How many people are you familiar enough with that have had marital issues? People you'd feel comfortable criticizing for leaving at the first hint of trouble?
Without kids? Just get a divorce. With kids? Well now that is a completely different story. Now that I have kids - marriage without kids seems almost like a joke. I don't mean to demean anything, but the commitment and responsibilities are infinitely greater. I laugh at my childless married friends who need their wife's "permission" to play poker once every 6 months. I mean a full grown human woman is fully capable of continuing to live for one nite alone. An infant is not. Yes there is a commitment to your wife (or spouse), but the commitment to your kids is several orders of magnitude greater.
I only have two things to add here. firstly When did ManRam get married?? last I remember, he was bummed cuse he couldnt find a girl he liked. Was it a shotgun wedding? and secondly I actually agree with you about the 200 for a tree thing...no frikking way I pay that much for a tree...we spend around 45-50 bucks for a nice 6" real tree(the wife loves real trees). I could see buyin a good fake one that will last you a few years later down the road when money isnt so tight...but with financial worries...I would stick with a less expensive tree for now if I were you(and Im not, so dont take that as a direct order. ) now...I have no desire to get in on the rest of this debate..so Ill just end this with wishing you the best of luck however it turns out.
thank goodness...after reading all those replies i was starting to think i was the only "fool" who thought $200 for a xmas tree was ridiculous.
yea, and your childless married friends are probably laughing at you never being able to go out unless you find a babysitter. let's not forget that married guys with kids need their wife's "permission" too. i know it sounds like i'm dogging you (although i may be a bit after your post) but marriage and kids are mutually exclusive. marriage doesn't mean you need to have kids. as a matter of fact, sometimes kids make a marriage worse.
Uh, when is the last time you bought a fake tree and ornaments? This shizznit is not cheap. We did it last year and EASILY spent that much.
the last time i bought a fake xmas tree with ornaments for $200 was never. i didn't say it was cheap. i said the thought of spending that much on a tree and ornaments is asinine. if you're gonna spend that much, might as well buy a real tree. unless those ornaments are made of gold or can wipe my ass, i'll just settle for tree moss and paper mache. it can't be that hard to get a good one for under $100 and have it serve teh same purpose. to each his own.
Only advice I have is that "Love" often starts as an attraction or curiousity... but for the "Love" to remian it has to become an act of the will. You must move from impulse/reaction to choice/instigator. Men act. Women react. It's basically how we're wired.
It depends on whether money is more important than your woman being happy with a nice tree. Every year I try to convince my wife to buy the Charlie Brown Christmas tree at the tree place. My argument is that nobody else is going to buy it, its going to die a lonely death without purpose. She rolls her eyes and goes to the section with the huge $200 trees. Last year I changed tactics and said we should buy a live tree (you know one of those in a planter). She rolled her eyes, said if I wanted a ten foot live christmas tree in the living room year around that would be ok with her. Then she went to the section with the huge $200 trees.
no, i don't. and from what i understand, neither does Manny...unless i missed something. so, what's his wife's justification for it? look, i may have come off as being judgmental about the whole xmas tree thing. i'd just rather use that xmas tree money to buy other gifts. then again, if paying $200 for a tree (hopefully those who do don't throw it out every year) isn't that big a deal, then money is probably the least of your worries.
well, my bad then. i don't know. my parents grew up with 4 kids and i don't think they've spent over $100 on tree and ornaments ever and it never made it any less a xmas. i just think $200 for a tree is steep.
Assuming the tree was $200 (and it wasn't if she also bought ornaments) a good artificial can last 10 years - so that would average to $20 a year. Real trees are much more. I did a quick search on Walmart, home of cheap and crappy and the cheapest tree I saw was $80.
i guess that's not a bad investment then. i was thinking more along the lines of people buying a tree every year.
