@Laura Hitt It can be sad seeing your kids giving up on relationships. I hope their fortunes turn around and they find lives filled with love. I feel that cutthroat capitalism, materialism, and the culture of instant gratification have shortened people’s patience and made them more short-sighted. Relationships require patience, understanding, and effort, but today it often feels easier to replace than to repair. Our changing relationship with objects may also be influencing how we view people and I wonder whether that mindset has begun to influence how we approach relationships with people. When we become accustomed to replacing things rather than repairing them, it may subtly affect the way we think about commitment and permanence. Feminism has changed the dating scene too. In the past, women faced strong social pressure to marry and have children; today, those expectations have loosened, giving people more freedom to choose. That freedom is good, but it also means relationships increasingly depend on genuine commitment rather than social obligation.