naomi dunne

"If I Could Tell Mommy And Daddy..."

Whatever happened to the best interests of the child?

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 9:09am

My parents divorced when I was four months old. There were custody battles. There were children's advocates. There was a custody trial — complete with swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth — in which I was asked to choose at the age of 10 which parent I should live with.

There were three cloak-and-dagger plane rides with a non-custodial parent trying to "take me back." There were emergency passports issued to get me out of the country. According to my mother, I was kidnapped by my father. According to my father, it happened the other way around.

We call this acting in the best interests of the child?

Separate But Happy

Do two people in love have to always be together?

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Fri, 06/17/2011 - 7:38am

Because I’ve been known to have a one-track mind, I’m still thinking about what I wrote about last week: Should some people just stay single?

My partner and I have been talking about this a lot lately. We are two of the most compatible people I’ve ever known. We live together. We run a business together. We work in our home office together.

And we are completely and utterly sick of each other. Actually, that’s not entirely true. We’re not sick of each other, we’re sick of not being alone.

Here’s the thing: We’re both very independent people. We’re both people pleasers. We both go out of our way to make the other person desperately, completely, ragingly happy. It’s exhausting, and I don’t think we want to do it any more.

We want to eat what we want for dinner. We want to stop discussing the color of paint on the walls. We want to stop planning and talking and communicating. We both just want to be left alone.

Are Break-Ups Bad For The Environment?

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 12:38pm

We all are well aware that we should recycle, reuse, car pool, opt for the bus or ride a bike, but should we stay together for the sake of the environment?

A couple divorcing usually means division of assets and two separate households. A study which took place in 12 countries was just released examining the impact separate households have on our environment. Researchers found that use of electricity rose 53 percent, while water usage increased 42 percent. In the US alone, 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were used in 2005 that would not have been used if couples had stayed together.

Each parent with visitation rights has to find a place that will not only house themselves, but has room for the kids as well. That means children with two bedrooms, two beds, two sets of furniture, two sets of clothes — the whole deal.

"Chauvinistic Husbands" Respond to New Japanese Divorce Laws

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 11:12pm

The Japanese Chauvinistic Husband Association is opening its doors and branching out.

We've discussed the plight of Japanese men who are affected by a new divorce law that allows ex-wives 50 percent of their ex-husband's pensions before here at FWW — basically, a whole bunch of wives are threatening to waltz out the door after decades of marital neglect.

But now we have numbers and they're pretty shocking.

Japanese wives have played second fiddle to careers, strip clubs, and drinking with the boys. Now that the divorce laws have changed, wives who are fed up have an attractive reason to leave. Some enterprising husbands have formed a support and learning group to help them figure out how to be nice to their wives.

Australia Leaps to the Aid of Children of Divorce

Goverment promises $40 million for programs, education

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Mon, 09/08/2008 - 11:38pm

The Australian government has just committed to spending $17 million on programs to help traumatized children from divorced families, and it's about time.

This new initiative is part of a divorce related spending spree, and the government has agreed to spend nearly $40 million over the next four years. Money will go to programs for the children themselves, as well as programs to teach divorced spouses how to parent after the split.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this. The commitment to spend this kind of money is clearly an indication that the government of Australia is concerned about the welfare of the children involved.

On the other hand, while that's a lot of money, there are a lot of children being affected, and one wonders how far the money's going to go. A parenting class here and there certainly won't hurt, but I hope the money won't be spent for nothing.

Blame Divorce on Sex… Says Town of Bedfordshire

cross-dressing, pornography top UK survey

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 11:28pm

"Sex is the leading cause of divorce," says the headline of a new survey released in small town England.

Considering the cultural stereotype attached to the English and their sex lives, this will probably bring relief to millions of British women who, as popular opinion would have it, would gladly never have sex again. Don't have sex, don't get divorced, and live happily ever after in a G-rated utopia.

Tragically, though, it's not the sex itself that's leading to all the divorce say the people behind the study. It's sex-related causes. You know, porn surfing, infidelity, cross-dressing. Yup, cross-dressing.

According to the study done by Bedfordshire lawyers, cross-dressing by married people in the area happens often enough that it made the list of causes for divorce.

Bedfordshire, as it happens, is 10 minutes from where my mother lives. She tells me she's surrounded only by horses, but it would appear that she left out the hundreds of men in sequined palazzo pants and size 12 patent leather pumps.

Kirk Cameron Extinguishes Divorce in New Movie

plays porn-addicted fireman in $500,000 Christian production

Posted to Relevant News by Naomi Dunne on Sun, 08/31/2008 - 11:12pm

When I started out my journalism career, I certainly never thought I'd be writing a story about Kirk Cameron, Charles Darwin, divorce, bananas, and internet pornography. Good holy God, I love my job.

The story so far: Our boy Kirk made a movie called "Fireproof" about a Christian family on the brink of divorce. Kirk plays the cyber-porn-addicted fireman who has fallen out of love with his wife, a hospital public relations representative who's getting jiggy with a coworker. Kirk's dad, knowing that there's trouble at the mill, gives his son a book of — wait for it! — "love dares" and challenges him to make his marriage work in 40 days.

Oh, yes. I did say "love dares".

The movie had a production budget of only $500,000 and features a very sexy silhouette of a firefighter on the promo poster, a firefighter who I very much doubt is Kirk Cameron. Kirk was last seen weighing about 125 pounds on YouTube, advising that Darwinism is disproven because God invented the banana.

naomi dunne

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