Thursday, October 15, 2009

Oh, to be from Malaysia,When Discord is In Full Bloom

posted by Michele Olson
Anyone a native from Malaysia and on the brink of divorce? There is a silver lining in your difficulties thanks to your government.
(Perspective, we got cash for clunkers, they get two nights on an island resort....hmmmmm.)
On Monday the Malaysian government announced they had conducted a pilot program that gave couples a free, three-day, two-night honeymoon package with a cost of up to $440. (Seems quite inexpensive in their neck of the woods.) Because they felt that so many couples did successfully solve their problems, the state is now planning a full implementation that will offer a second honeymoon to "couples whose marital problems continued to persist despite having gone through the counseling process." It seems they must consent to udergo more counseling to take part in the program.
State officials claim that much of the marital problems stem from a lack of communication between husband and wife.
Yes Malaysia! And those skills can be learned even outside of a tropical honeymoon weekend through the types of workshops we offer here at thinkmarriage.org, on the ground, on line and through coaching. There is another solution: healthy relationship, skills based education.
Bravo to Malaysia for recognizing the importance of keeping marriages strong in their country.
Anyone up for writing their state and national representatives to see if we can get a similar deal here in the USA?

2 comments:

M. Denise Wilmer Barreto said...

I am on it.

I believe that is true - most married couples (with children) spend less than 30 minutes alone a day during the week and in that 30 minutes more than half of it is spent coordinating schedules and activities for their offspring.

I am up for it and since I am an elected official - will speak out about it in my community.

Thanks for alerting me to policy.

thinkmarriage.org said...

I do believe that starting it somewhere in America is a great idea and you starting it is a wonderful idea too. Keep us posted!