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Many people cohabit without marriage in hopes of improving their prospects of having a happy marriage later on when they actually marry. But cohabitation lowers chances of marital success. Most cohabiting relationships breakup before 18 months, the incidents of unfaithfulness in cohabiting relationship is considerably higher than in marital relationships and cohabiting couples who later marry divorce at higher rates than couples who did not cohabit before marriage. See this article for a summary of the research.

One of the biggest problems facing couples today is being too busy to build healthy relationships with each other. Kids need time to relate, too. In our society buying things, having things, shopping for things, using things take up too much of our precious time. The couple in this article decided to go one year without shopping. What did they discover? That their relationships with each other are more important than all the stuff they had. They used the extra time to connect with each other and saved money to boot. It was a win-win. Check out their story in this article.

There is a pervasive myth in our culture that says once a homosexual, always a homosexual. Strong voices seek to drown out others who have found victory in fighting same-sex attraction and the bondage of never ending lust. If you say you are an ex-gay you are scorned by gay activists and accused of being homophobic. Check out this recent video of a singer on a popular Italian TV music program where Giuseppe Povia, winner of the festival in 2006, presented a song titled, "Luca Era Gay." Povia at one time had been gay and then renounced the lifestyle. His singing of this song was met by protests from the gay community in Italy, who insist there is no deliverance from homosexuality. Read this powerful article and then listen to the song as it was seen on national Italian TV. The video has English subtitles.

This article summarizes recent research comparing cohabiting verses married couples and concludes that people in cohabiting relationships experience poorer relationship quality, are more likely to separate, experience infidelity more often, divorce more often later when they marry, accumulate less wealth, and have more problems with alcohol and depression than married couples. Married men also earn more than cohabiting men. In the 10 characteristics listed in the article, only one is more positive for cohabiting women: they tend to have higher earnings relative to their partners earnings than wives do to their husbands. However, this may be a wash because cohabiting men’s earnings are lower than married men’s to start with.

It is possible to affair proof your marriage. Will it be a lot of work? Yes. But that's what you signed up for when you decided to marry your sweetheart. Check out this article that is specifically addressed to encouraging husbands to remain faithful.

Many families struggle with keeping their house picked up. If things get left for a day, they pile up the next day and the next and before long there are dozens of items that need to be put away.

The Top 50 Acronyms Every Parent Needs to Know! NetLingo is an online dictionary of thousands of computer and Internet terms. The NetLingo Internet Dictionary contains every kind of online slang, text messaging, acronyms and smileys ;-).

Parents need to be aware of what their children are doing online. Here's a website for parents on the latest in Internet Slang, including a list of the Top 25 that parents need to know.