Mr Good Enough: The case for choosing a Real Man over holding out for Mr Perfect

when maybe it would be nice if it went both ways, you know?” As Dr. Broder explained, too often in dating we expect to be given a lot of things from men—constant compliments, vacations, meals, 24/7 emotional support, romantic gestures—and those men who don’t meet our standards in any of these departments get the boot, unnecessarily. One woman I spo

“There’s the way it was supposed to go, and the way it really goes,” he said. “You have to keep on challenging yourself. Your way of doing things so far has led you to where you are today. You have to go through a process to have the potential to meet someone you like. It’s up to you whether you choose to go through that process.”

“Most good enough marriages have the potential to become stronger and better with time, effort, and commitment,”

values were more important than shared interests,

I thought of all the conversations I’d had with single friends over the years about how there just weren’t enough good men out there. But now I was starting to discover something else. Maybe there were plenty of good men, but we were turning them off with our over-the-top expectations.

There’s a difference between what makes for a good boyfriend and what makes for a good husband. Over the years, stability and dependability outrank fireworks and witty banter.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the divorce rate of people who live together before marriage at 12 percent higher than those who didn’t cohabitate before marriage.

relationship, outline specific objectives on various dimensions (family, fiscal, leisure, career), generate his and her job descriptions, and decide on compensation and benefits. A

Marriage isn’t a constant passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane nonprofit business. And that, they say, can be really, really nice. Having a solid, like-minded teammate in life is pleasurable in its own way, and for most people, it’s certainly better than not having one at all.