Traditional Marriage: My Uncle was married to 6 different women

[HockeyMom]

Ok, not at the same time, and the 6th marriage was his original wife. He had children with all these women. Marriage and divorce, over and over. Perfectly legal and "sacred, holy, marriage between one man and one woman". This was back in the 50s and 60s. My Uncle was the joke of the family. "So who is his wife now and which mothers belong to which children?" Family members really looked down of him and all his children. I think he had 8. You needed a scorecard. However, because this was one man and one woman (at a time) what he did was somehow "right"?

I also had a Aunt, who was married for a time to a man, and had a child with him, who was a lesbian. She did this mostly to cover up to society at the time, and because she wanted to have a child. Let gays marry members of the opposite sex, as they say Think that will last? Well, it didn't in my Aunt's situation, and her divorce was the best thing that happened to her, my cousin, and her partner. She raised my cousin with her partner, until she died. They were together for over 30 years and had a very stable, loving, home life in which my cousin was raised. NO person in my family ever criticized my lesbian Aunt and her Partner the way they did my straight Uncle and his multiple marriages and children.

STABILITY is the key, not the sexual orientation of the parents. I can tell you that all my (half) cousins from my Uncle's marriages grew up to have far more problems than my one cousin who grew up with TWO mothers, and No father.

[teddy51]

1. I have a sister-in-law in the same boat, into her 5th marriage now. No making some

people happy I guess, the grass always looks greener but rarely is.

[Sherman A1]

2. I think every family has one of those

or some variation on the theme of multiple marriage/divorce and on and on.

My take on the situation is simple... I don't care what my neighbors do in the privacy of their home between consenting adults. I only care when they play their music too loud and don't keep their grass cut.

[yellerpup]

3. That is a lovely tribute to your aunt

and also to your family. Stability is the key.

[HockeyMom]

4. Dad grew up in an Irish Catholic family with 4 kids during the Depression (NYC)

Of those 4 children, they had a total of 3 kids total. That would make Cardinal Dolan's head spin. Dad used to say to my Mom, "Your brother needs to be neutered like a tom cat." I guess my family was "secularized" long before modern times, in more ways than one.

[auburngrad82]

5. My gay uncle has been with the same man for over 40 years

A gay coworker has been with his partner for over 40 years.

Stability is not automatically come with marriage. It comes with love.

[xchrom]

6. My mother's father - my grandfather - made 11 kids wife his wife.

Then left.

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. "Family members really looked down on him and all his children."

I am hopeful that the family did not look down at his children, but looked down on him for, perhaps, creating so many children with so many wives (?). It would be sad to blame the child for the parent's actions.

[HockeyMom]

8. Generally, yes

but the kids had a lot of problems because of their crazy homelife. Of course, not really their fault, but they carried this on into adulthood.