“companionate marriages.” The couple gets along. They parent together. But the passion has faded. They may or may not have sex, and if they do, it is rare. Work and parenting become the most important part of the spouses’ lives, and the marriage comes in third, or fourth, or fifth. An academic friend of mine observed over lunch recently, “I don’t really know of many happy marriages. I know a lot of marriages where parents love their kids.” In such a marriage, you learn to live in an arrangement that really doesn’t occupy your interest or your energies.
