[S I M T A N]

The "flush of romance" happens when you match the face you see with attributes that are just not there, which you wanted subconsciously in a partner.  You talk to him (or her) as if he was this, that and the other, but in fact, he is not the person you imagine him to be.

Online platforms like WhatsApp, WeChat and now Telegram only make it worse because you cannot see the body language behind the smartphone screen.  What you see are only   which are so fake.  Love is blind.  That is, if we use the word "love" loosely and out of context. Perhaps we should say, infatuation is blind.

When a marriage has broken down, both parties can amicably (ideally) part ways IF there are no chewren.  If there is even just one, then there is such a thing as conscience.  The parents would feel guilty to let the child grow up without a complete family, and so they bear with it.  Or even before we get to the guilty part, some parents feel it is a duty, their duty to bring up the kid in at very least a family that's theoretically, or on the face of it, in one piece.  However, the kid might become a source of more friction between two already incompatible and feuding adults, instead of being the unifying factor.   Will the kid grow up to be more like one parent due to this thing called "genetics", which would somehow alienate one parent in favour of the other, who can say?

Yea, those are the hidden pitfalls of online dating. We heard familiar tales of woe of those who went on their first date. Their date wasn't what they had imagined him or her to be in the looks department, and their mannerism, worldviews differed from theirs. Their date was, in a manner of speaking, very nice, but they both had nothing in common and there was no chemistry between them. Unsurprisingly, their newfound friendship didn't develop further after their first meeting.

Infatuation is indeed blind, but love is many a splendid thing! During the first phase of falling in love, you love your sweetheart to the hilt; you don't see their faults and the nookie is just great! Then you walk down the aisle after a whirlwind romance. Soon familiarity breeds contempt. Slowly but surely, you begin to see your partner's failings in the cold light of day, and start finding fault with almost everything he or she does. A shouting match ensues. The romance has gone out of the relationship.

A tempestuous marriage is all the more reason to put the romance back into the relationship, simply by renewing your courtship rituals and wedding vows to love and desire your significant other with every fibre of your being. I'll warrant you that it works a treat!

I know of a Chinese couple who are keeping up the masquerade of a happy marriage for the sake of their only child. In actuality, they intend to file for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. But that will only be after their boy has come of age and has completed his formal education. If they split now, it'll mean a broken marriage and a broken family. Children from broken homes may grow into screwed-up adults. Besides, there'll be a bitter custody as both of them will want to have sole custody of their kid. So in the meantime, they're bearing with each other and keeping up the masquerade for the sake of his emotional well-being. Parents will go to the ends of the earth to care for their progeny.