Strollerderby : happy marriage

Evangelical Preacher Urges Congregants to Have More Sex

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Addressing his congregation of 20,000, Rev. Ed Young urged his married followers to spice up their love life with some increased intimacy. "And when I say intimacy, I don't mean holding hands in the park or a back rub," the Texan evangelical preacher clarified. After all, Young reminded his flock, sex was God's idea in the first place.

More sex, Young has frequently argued, means that you "will perform better at work, leave a loving legacy for your children to follow and may even prevent an extramarital affair."

I think I kind of like this guy. As I've pointed out elsewhere, evangelical teens are more sexually active than almost any other religious group. This kind of open talk about hot sex in marriage is necessary if the church wants to keep teens committed to abstinence.

Young challenged his congregants to a "congregational copulation" (hot!): seven days in a row of lovemaking for the Lord. And the results, judging from the looks of Madeline and Rob Hulsey (pictured), were nothing short of miraculous. On the Sunday after the challenge was issued, Young's wife, wearing tight jeans and knee-high black boots, said that at the end of this "sexperiment," many of the congregants were "smiling."

As for single people, Young suggested eating chocolate cake. 'Cause that's sort of the same as physical intimacy with another human being....

Photo: New York Times

Evangelical Teens' Very Active Sex Lives

Secret to Happy Marriage? Shockingly NOT Children

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:16:00 GMT

With all the fuss made about kids completing a couple's relationship or bringing a sense of purpose and focus to marriage, it should probably come as no surprise that it is in fact shared housework that makes the difference between "peh" marriages and those filled with joy (or at least minimal resentment).

Of course, once you have kids the amount of cooking, cleaning, and toilet cleaning goes up dramatically. Cutesy little jokes about socks on the floor aren't delivered with the same deadly angry seriousness that stepping on a small sharp Lego at 2am evokes.

Also important? A good sex life, shared interests, and a nice house. In other news, women don't like being told they have a fat ass.

[photo credit: Daily Mail]

Top 5 Gen Ex Misperceptions About Having Kids

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:00:00 GMT

Generation X is apparently much less enthralled with having children (and better equipped with birth control choices) than prior generations. The mean age of women having children is now approximately 30 years, older still for women with higher educational attainment and incomes. As we wait longer to have children, one would assume that our choice is more informed than prior generations.

Quite the contrary. It turns out the we, MTV generation, are relatively clueless about children before deciding to have our own. Since we spend the majority of our early adulthood engaged in work, travel, and romping, is it any wonder?

Here are 5 of the most prevalent misperceptions leading us down the primrose path of parenthood:

1. Having children will make your relationship stronger
While it is true that children often impel people to stay in bad relationships, research shows that the little buggers might be the start of the whole thing falling apart anyway. Marital quality usually declines after having children. Seattle's Gottman Institute conducted a multi-year study to identify key factors in decreasing marital discord after having a baby.

2. Men and women share childrearing duties and parent the same. Co-parenting works
In her book "The Second Shift" Arlie Russell Hochschild points out that women still do the majority of cooking, cleaning, laundry and childcare, regardless of how many hours they put in at the office.

3. You will get your body back
Read the stats on obesity lately? It is probably unfair to blame the extra pounds on the pregnancy, but at least you can if you like.

4. Wait six weeks after the baby to resume your sex life and it will return to normal.
You sex life won't return to normal (whatever that is). You can write a book about it, talk to your friends on the sly, and do your sit-ups. It will change as surely as your body will.

5. Having children will make an empty life seem full.
Not surprisingly, an empty life will remain empty if one falls into the trap of believing your children will be your wee performing cute monkeys. If you are a total narcissist youth-worshipper, you likely won't be amused by the lack of sleep, long tedious hours, and general other-centerdness required in childrearing.

If we were properly informed would we choose to procreate? Probably. Even cranky parents would agree that most days, it's still worth it.