What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us
Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman
Chapter One
About Love
Our grandmothers, we are told, took husbands the way we might choose our
first apartment. There was a scheduled viewing, a quick turn about the
interior, a glance inside the closets, a nervous intake of breath as one
read the terms of the lease, and then the signing - or not. You either
felt a man's charms right away or you didn't. If you didn't, you
entertained a few more prospects until you found one who better suited
you. If you loved him, really loved him, all the better. But you also
expected to make compromises: The view may not be great, but it's sunny
and spacious (translation: he's not that handsome, but he's sweet-natured
and will be a good provider). Whether you accepted or rejected him,
however, you didn't dawdle. My late mother-in-law, who married at twenty,
told me that in her college circles in the mid-1950s, a man who took a
woman out for more than three dates without intending marriage was
considered a cad. Today, the man who considered marriage so rashly would
be tho ... read full excerpt from: What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman ebook
