What if marriage lasted seven years?
Every marriage comes with an end date. In year seven, you both sign again or you go your separate ways.
The vows now come with an end date, and everyone in the room knows it.
The day it passes
The law fits on one page. Every marriage now lasts seven years. If both partners sign again, it runs for another seven. If one of them doesn’t, it ends on that date, with no court case and no reason needed.
Couples who married six years ago check the calendar. Engaged couples start asking each other harder questions than where to hold the reception.
Year seven
The first renewal dates arrive. Plenty of couples book a restaurant and sign over dessert, while others spend the month being unusually polite, waiting to see what the other one will do.
A sizeable minority don’t renew. Most of them say they had been unhappy for a while, and the date forced a conversation they had kept putting off.
Twenty years on
Kids know their parents’ renewal date the way they know their own birthday. A renewal means a small party. An ending means a weekend of packing and two addresses.
Couples who have signed three times get the kind of respect people married for fifty years get today. Wedding venues have mostly switched to smaller rooms.
Who wins
- People stuck in an unhappy marriageNo lawyer and no reason needed. They just don’t sign.
- Couples who want to staySigning again is a real choice, and it feels like one.
Who loses
- The partner who wants to stayIt only takes one person to let the date pass.
- Big weddingsTwo hundred guests is a lot for a seven-year contract.
- Year sixEvery couple knows what’s coming, and it shows.
A deadline doesn’t make anyone love each other more. It just makes one question impossible to dodge, and plenty of couples would rather not be asked it.
Would you sign for another seven years?
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