From Raw Story:
Utah state Rep. Jim Nielson (R) says that he is sponsoring a bill to force divorcing couples to take classes because he says that men are often “surprised” when women want to end the marriage.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that Nielson had filed a bill that would require couples to take part of mandatory divorces classes even sooner than the law required when Utah became the first state with the mandate in 1994. Nielson would like to see couples take at least half of the $55 two-hour classes at the beginning of divorce process.
While Nielson told The AP that he hoped the classes would reduce the divorce rate in Utah, he was even more specific about his goals earlier this month on an Internet show called DadsDivorce.com.
“The friends that I have that have gone through a divorce, most of the people that I know personally that have gone through that personally are men,” Nielson explained to host Matt Allen. “And my sense, at least from the men that I interact with, is that they’ve usually been surprised by the divorce request, by the filing.”
The women I know who have “surprised” men with divorces or break-ups had consistently made clear the problems in their relationships… but their spouses/boyfriends never listened or didn’t take it seriously until she — to quote the Gap Band — “burned rubber” on them.
Now, many of these men had every intention of seriously working through the issue in their relationships… as part of a formalized process with a clear end result (she comes back). They however either lacked the inclination or the ability to become more empathetic or engaged in the relationship on a consistent basis.
I call this the Romantic Comedy Myth. Vince Vaughn or Owen Wilson or Ben Stiller or some other overpaid man child has spent the past 90 minutes demonstrating to their partner and the audience that they shouldn’t be in a relationship with anyone but during the final 10 minutes of the movie, they make some grand declaration of love (showing up unannounced at her place of business with a mariachi band or rushing past security to board her flight out of town and tell her how he can’t live without her — failing to realize that his codependency is not her problem), and the credits roll as the couple kiss and make up. Fortunately, fiction and Fox News don’t have to reflect reality, so we don’t see the couple spiral back into the same problems.
serhasacomplaint 
observeratlarge
March 1, 2014 at 6:44 pm
See, here they are starting at the ass end of the donkey. If these legal eagles wanted to do a service to married couples, they would have education at the beginning of the marriage, not at the end of it.
There should be a disclosure document signed by the couple that explains the legal ramifictions of marriage — joint property, responsibility to support each other financially, the significance of joint tax returns, inheritance prospects, that status of property acquired during the marriage, the rights of each of them to the other’s pensions, social security, investment holdings, etc.. And the couple should have to disclose certain significant facts to each other: previous marriages, children, debts, status with the IRS, and major health or heredity issues.
There are probably other things that should be disclosed, but this is what occurs to me right now. And I can’t figure out why none of these genius realize this.