The number one thing men do to screw up their marriage — according to a divorce lawyer who’s seen it all
Do the damn dishes.
Helping out around the house is one of the easiest things men can do to keep their marriage a happy one, a divorce lawyer revealed.
“A spouse who never participates in household chores often breeds resentment in the other spouse,” Sarah Corcoran, who sees her share of unhappy couples, said in a TikTok video.
“There’s not going to be one incident that results in some extreme fight that ends the marriage, it’s a slow burn,” she warned.
In heterosexual relationships, about 70% of divorces in the US are now initiated by women.
“I think that marriage as an institution has been a little bit slow to catch up with expectations for gender equality,” Michael Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at Stanford University, told the American Sociological Association.
“Wives still take their husbands’ surnames, and are sometimes pressured to do so. Husbands still expect their wives to do the bulk of the housework and the bulk of the childcare,” the professor explained.
That’s why Corcoran suggests that men specifically make sure they don’t leave their wives to check off everything on the to-do list by themself.
“My advice to you guys out there — if you want to stay married, empty the dishwasher once in a while,” Corcoran said.
James Sexton, a world-renowned family lawyer based in New York City, has his own theories — he revealed in a podcast that the two main reasons why people get divorced are infidelity and money.
To avoid having to utilize Sexton’s services, he advises that couples truly “pay attention” to each other.
However, fewer people seem to need Corcoran and Sexton’s advice than in previous years.
The number of couples legally calling it quits has been dwindling, following the lengthy period during the COVID-19 pandemic where weddings and dates were put on hold — an apparent silver lining to the lockdowns.
The marriage rate is still reportedly low compared to the past two decades — when the number of marriages hovered around seven to eight per 1,000 people a year.
The divorce rate in 2022 was at 2.4 per 1,000 — down from four in 2000.
Experts suggest that the rise cannot just be pinned on the pandemic, explaining that current societal and economic trends are changing how people enter into and handle relationships.
