[dawn53]

If a guy wants to stay single his entire life...no problem.

But be honest up front with the women one dates, so they don't hold on to the hope they'll someday get married.

But I, personally, see marriage as a great thing, for men and women. In our family, though, all marriages have been "long term" (parents on both sides 56 and 53 years respectively, siblings on both sides, 40,32,26,24,and 22years, and we've been married 26 years also.)

But I do understand how divorce could play into "trust" issues and make it harder to take the "leap."

[SauronOfMordor]

If a guy wants to stay single his entire life...no problem. But be honest up front with the women one dates, so they don't hold on to the hope they'll someday get married.

Ladies, if after two years, three at most, he hasn't decided to marry you, it's unlikely that he will. Move on.

Women tend to be focused on a relationship "growing". As in winding up at marriage and kids.

What too many women don't realize is that, from a man's point of view, once she's moved in and he's getting laid on a regular basis, the relationship is at an ideal point: he gets all the benefits of marriage without that much future commitment

[Graybeard58]

My mother married my father when she was 14 and they were married 40 years when he passed away, a year later she remarried and she and her husband have been married for 31 years now.

Some people just know what it takes to make a successful marriage.

[RSteyn]

>But be honest up front with the women one dates, so they don't hold on to the hope they'll someday get married.<

A lot of men need to stick with other men. I had to listen to the whinings of a guy at work for 6 years as he complained about how stupid his girlfriend was [no argument there]--this, after she quit her job in another city, and moved a few hundred miles to move in with him with his blessing. Week after week he moaned about her shoes, her Billy Bass, her decorating ideas, the very same things--to a captive audience around him. I had no escape from this blather. I wanted to tell him to either kick her out or get a perfect roomate--another man.

[xrp]

But be honest up front with the women one dates, so they don't hold on to the hope they'll someday get married.

That's a good one. Maybe if women were more likely to keep to their marriage vows, men would be more likely to be honest with their dating partners. We have to be dishonest to protect ourselves nowadays.