Summer holidays are over, so maybe now is the right time to get that divorce
What you need to know:
- Being the back-to-school month, September also raises anxieties for many parents with children.
- It has been estimated that the average family spends £4,000 (Sh 531,000) for clothing over a child’s school career.
- Now we hear that being bad-tempered and pessimistic helps you to earn more, live longer and enjoy a healthier marriage.
According to the poet T.S. Eliot, April is the cruellest month. August is supposed to be the hottest, and most people would agree that February is the most miserable. So what is special about our newly arrived September? According to the experts, it’s the month when marriages tend to hit the rocks.
The counselling charity Relate reports that in September of 2014, it answered 17,870 calls from people in troubled relationships. Last year, the total was up by nine per cent to 19,527 calls. The figure for this month is confidently expected to be even higher.
“There is something psychological about September,” said counsellor Elaine Taylor.
It is not a new year, but the summer holidays are over, the weather is turning cool, the kids are starting in higher classes and it seems like a natural time to take a new look at partnerships which have become wobbly and fractious.
Relate’s Cambridge office said it had seen a surprising number of couples also mentioning Brexit – Britain’s planned exit from Europe – as a reason for seeking help.
It is true that Leave or Remain has divided many Britons, not just generations or classes, but families, too.
“There is a risk of deep rifts if families do not talk through their difficulties,” Ms Taylor warned.
Being the back-to-school month, September also raises anxieties for many parents with children. Most school uniforms cost around £40 (Sh5,310) but then there are items such as shoes, scarfs, hats or caps, satchels and perhaps sports gear.
It has been estimated that the average family spends £4,000 (Sh 531,000) for clothing over a child’s school career.
One mother has dreamed up a scheme to soften the burden for poorer families. Charlene Paterson was about to throw away a mountain of uniforms which her three children had grown out of when she thought: why not offer them to smaller children whose mums are struggling to buy new ones?
Gathering up the spare clothes, she put a quick post on Facebook asking if anyone else had good clothing which their children had cast off. She got an amazing response.
HATE CONTINUES
“I’ve had absolutely loads of uniforms. People got in touch from all over,” she said.
Charlene contacted a youth activity centre near her home in Newcastle upon Tyne and arranged to borrow their space for a one-day drop-in session.
She collected uniforms for nearly all the primary schools and many of the secondary schools in the area. The uniforms, all free, are cleaned and pressed. “No child should have to go to school in a torn or ill-fitting uniform or without a uniform,” she said.
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The race hate continues. When a national referendum on June 23 voted for Britain to quit Europe, the morons and low-lifes among us assumed that it was now OK to be nasty to non-whites and foreigners, and police and social media sites reported an “explosion of blatant hate.” For example:
* Gangs demanding passers-by prove they can speak English.
* Nazi swastika flags, arson attacks and dog excrement being thrown at doors or shoved through letter-boxes.
* Toddlers being racially abused, with children involved in 14 per cent of cases as victims or perpetrators.
* Assaults – a man in Glasgow ripped off a girl’s headscarf and told her, “Trash like you better start obeying the white man.”
* Posts saying “Refugees are rats who should be shot at the border.”
Police chief David Felton said, “Any crime that targets someone for who they are is totally unacceptable and we will not stand by and let this happen.”
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Life-style advice never seems to end. Last week, we reported a warning by the doctors’ magazine, The Lancet, that eight hours a day without exercise could lead to early death. Now we hear that being bad-tempered and pessimistic helps you to earn more, live longer and enjoy a healthier marriage.
New research says when you are feeling good, your drive and attention to detail diminish. Positivity also encourages binge-drinking, over-eating and unsafe sex.
On the other hand, if you are cranky, you are a better negotiator and a more discerning decision-maker which cuts the risk of having a heart attack. Cynics are found to have more stable marriages, higher earning and longer lives. Problem is, if you’re a naturally positive person, can you make yourself the opposite? And would you really want to?
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An angry man walked into a crowded bar waving a gun. “I’ve got a seven-round clip in this revolver and one in the chamber and I want to know who has been sleeping with my wife.”
Came a voice from the back, “You need more ammo.”
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For all the guys who think a woman’s place is in the kitchen, remember that is where the knives are kept!
