Recently, I attended a mid-singles dance in Utah. It was a sad state to see. Many of these people had simply given up on life and were on life support so to speak. One sad observation was how many divorced women there were that had 3 or 4 children. If only the Church would teach wait five years into your marriage before having children, many of these sisters might have had it easier. My heart goes out to them since some of them have dead-beat ex-husbands.

The cycle continues with each new generation of TBMs in the Church: quick engagements because of the prohibition of sexual activity, lots of Children in a short-period of time, and then divorce. The cycle goes on and on with no changes in sight. That leaves both men and women with ill feelings to the Church for their ill-advised counsel. The Church, of course, would be quick to blame the individual and never fess up that 80% of all failures in a system is systemic based.

God, that's depressing :- / After my divorce, once I got back on my feet I turned down each and every invite to go to those dances and other singles events. I had a much more fulfilling social life outside the church than in; started singing and performing locally again and stayed busy with that and my kids. I knew what the people were like at those types of affairs and I already knew by that time that if I ever married again, it wouldn't be to a Mormon.

If I married again, it would definitely not be a Mormon. I just know too many women who went to single's activities, married some guy with all the speed and immaturity of a BYU coed and lived to regret it. Didn't somebody on this board say once that they worked for the Dept. of Corrections in Utah and a few years ago, parolees could show that they were transitioning well into society by showing they were attending Mormon single's activities? I swear I remember that story.

oh my, the memory! I had a good TBM friend who just coaxed and coaxed me into going to one of those dances several years ago.

It was the most pathetic experience I can remember in a long time. The women outnumbered the men by at least 2-1. The men prowled around the room looking for the youngest hottest ones they could find even though they were no prize themselves.

We lasted about 1 hour. On the way back to the car, she profusely apologized and swore she would never ask me to endure something like that again!