Who’s seen the Disney movie, Brave? It’s one that I’m happy to recommend for a number of reasons not least of all because it breaks away from the typical “girl gets married to escape a difficult life” that characterizes so many Disney movies. The problem goes deeper than movies and fairy tales though … it’s a fundamental part of the societal “girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, girl and boy get married and live happily ever-after expectation” with which so many of us have been raised. The reality however is that getting married rarely solves our problems:
I had been suffering from this prince charming syndrome my whole life. I thought if I marry somebody who has money, I’d be alright and I was for a time. When we got divorced it all went back to where it was before I married him and even worse because I had a child to support.
This quote came from Sue who following her divorce, ended up filing for bankruptcy but is now successfully supporting both herself and her child. At the time of our interview, Sue didn’t own a credit card and she was keeping a daily record of everything she spent—a practice she felt she’d have to follow for the rest of her life. You can listen to her story here.