The Live Apart Together Revolution is Coming
Divorced Gen-X and Boomer moms are leading the way
In their conversation about their divorces on Lyz Lenz’s podcast, This American Ex-Wife, Lenz and poet and author Maggie Smith both imagine what kind of life they want moving forward as divorced mothers.
One thing they don’t want is to follow that old romantic script — meet, fall in love, become a committed monogamous couple, move in together, put a ring on it and have kids–something Lenz writes about in her book of the same name.
Divorce has given them much-desired freedom — finally. And, no surprise, they’re not willing to give that up.
“One of the most freeing parts of being divorced in my 40s is that I’ve already done all of the things that the culture wants me to do. There’s no timeline that I need to live on now. … I already drank the Kool-Aid, I already did all the things … and now I can just kind of make it up as I go without a blueprint that someone’s handed me.”
That said, both may be interested in having a romantic partner one day — just not a husband. Or at least a sexual partner.
As Lenz writes about not having much experience dating or having sex before she married at age 22 (she was a virgin), divorce opened up a whole new world for her:
