Why is that such a common thing? While there are certainly people in other generations who have bad marriages and go through bitter divorces, spouse hatred seems so much less common among other generations…
That generation got married and had kids because that’s what you did. That type of group think and pigeon-holing carries a lot of baggage. For example: My parents undoubtedly wanted to have me for religious reasons, but weren’t too keen on raising me. My dad walked out on my mom when I was 5; mom did her best but I was a latch key kid who ate a lot of TV dinners. Even if the 'rents stayed together, neither of them were really into parenting so I doubt I would have been much better off. My wife’s parents straight up despise each other, are still together, and have both nearly died from self medication. Both ardent Trump supporters who love Wal-Mart and hate immigrants.
Whaddyagonnado?
I think my mom enjoyed having someone to share the struggle with, but she wasn’t interested in being a motherly figure. I remember my mom was bored to tears during school functions and she had no love for other children in general. My father was just a self absorbed prick. My mom is completely elated to be a grandmother though, similar to your parents it sounds like.
The conclusion I’ve come to is, I doubt similar people would get married now let alone have kids in today’s environment. From my perspective I do harbor some hard feelings toward my mom and dad for being kind of shitty (in different ways, respectively) - but I also realize a lot of it was born out of true generational ignorance.
My parents despise each other at times. They fight all the time and been together almost 40 years. Dedication and commitment and less of a focus in the type of live we usually think of. But also my parents are kind of religious and they value marriage for other reasons as well
