I love going on cheap dates. Don’t get me wrong - I can get all glammed up and go out for an expensive night on the town as well. But I tend to think that inexpensive dates are a lot more fun. You’re more relaxed on them. And you usually end up doing things that are more creative than you do when you spend a lot of money on traditional dates.

I happen to think that summer is the ideal time for romantic cheap dates. Part of that has to do with the great weather that most places have during the summer (something that’s not necessarily true where I live in San Francisco but can be found nearby). And it also has to do with the fact that there are so many great cheap events in summer that don’t necessarily happen the rest of the year.

Last weekend I got to enjoy a series of activities that made for great cheap dates. I actually went with the guy I’m dating as well as with some friends so it wasn’t uber-romantic but the activities we enjoyed were perfect examples of great cheap dates. Those activities were:

• A short inexpensive road trip. We piled into a car and listened to the radio and laughed about crazy sights in small towns along the road.
• Lunch in Old Town. We stopped in Old Town Sacramento and got a cheap lunch then just did some windowshopping and photo-taking.
• Antique browsing. I admit it - I love looking at old junk in cheap antique stores. I ended up buying a great colorful pitcher and glasses set for $15 but I would’ve been happy just looking too.
• Art gallery reception. We ended up in the small town of Marysville. There was an art and literary opening reception there. It was themed around the 1970’s and seeing the dressed-up people was great. Plus there was free wine and food.
• Farmers’ Market. There was a Farmer’s Market going on so we got some great inexpensive fruit and walked around people-watching.
• Carnival. It doesn’t cost much to play a game of throwing the darts at the balloons but it sure was fun.
• Spent the day at a river. The main purpose of the trip was to spend a day at the river up there. We floated down natural rock water slides, ate a picnic lunch, swam in too-cold water and had a really great time.

All of these things are cheap and there were fun and I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer’s adventures!

The recession is doing strange things to people. It’s causing many different types of changes - some positive and some negative. One of the things that seems to be affected greatly is relationships. People are handling dating, marriage and discussions about money differently than they did in the past.

For some people, this has been a good thing. Couples that are facing the recession head-on together may be strengthening their relationship as a result of undergoing these tough times as a team. Unfortunately, that’s not how everyone is handling this situation.

There are quite a few couples out there that find their relationship impacted by the recession in a negative way. They are fighting about money. They are fighting about things unrelated to money because they’re stressed out by their finances. They are letting the recession tear them apart instead of allowing it to bring them together.

At the end of this difficult economic time, we are going to see that the way we dealt with the recession says a lot about who we are and the lives that we lead. Those couples who opt to make use of this time to bring themselves closer could be the ones that end up having positive life-long relationships.

The topic of weddings and honeymoons seems to keep coming up in my life a lot lately. I have to admit, it’s not a topic that I really understand. I’ve never been someone who was a big fan of ceremonies and I kind of think that the whole hullaballoo that people put themselves through for planning an elaborate wedding is really kind of strange. Nevertheless, it’s something that people do so the topic keeps coming up.

What people seem to be telling me lately is that the wedding is stressful but only as stressful as they’d expected it to be. The honeymoon, on the other hand, is also stressful but the stress seems to surprise them because they expected this vacation part of the new marriage to be a breeze.

That expectation seems silly to me. As someone who has done a fair amount of traveling, I have come to expect that there are often going to be problems on my vacations. Travel just comes with a lot of hassles including delays and illnesses and weather issues and getting lost. Don’t get me wrong - I love to travel - but nothing about it really seems simple to me.

And it definitely doesn’t seem simple when it involves planning and going with another person. There are very few people that I’ve actually enjoyed traveling with because people have such different travel styles. I’m lucky because there are some people really close to me that I travel well with but I certainly don’t travel well with everyone that I’m close to so the idea that travel with someone else will go smoothly isn’t something I’d bank on.

I certainly think that honeymoons should be fun and romantic and enjoyable. I think that about all types of vacations. However, I don’t think that they’re simple things to plan out and make happen so that’s something all of these marriage-planning people may want to take into consideration as they do their planning!

Something that I was reading earlier today made me start thinking about the cost of weddings. Do you know how much money people are spending to get married these days? Even budget weddings are expensive. Heck, even choosing to elope instead of getting married with a big ceremony can be expensive if you’re not careful about how you do it. So why is it that people spend a small fortune on the ceremony of marriage?

I know the reasons that everyone says that they don’t mind spending money on a wedding. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime-event. It’s an important rite of passage. It’s a great gathering of friends and family that is worth the cost that comes with it. Yada yada yada.

I still don’t get it.

Perhaps this is because I’m just not a person who much likes ceremonies. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been to some really fun weddings. I have ideas in mind that would surely make any wedding of mine a blast to attend. I just don’t think it’s worth a five-figure number for a single-day event that may or may not turn out like you planned.

Maybe I’m just not romantic enough. Or maybe I’m just not traditional enough. I’m not sure.

What’s your opinion? Are weddings today really worth their cost?

I have been reading a bunch of interesting news articles online lately about divorce rates and the current economy. It’s interesting stuff because it seems to be this nasty cycle.

On the one hand, the poor economy is causing a lot of stress in marriages which means that there are a lot of couples interested in getting divorced right now. On the other hand, divorce is expensive. It’s complicated by the fact that couples usually own houses together and this is definitely not a good time to sell a house which is what usually happens in a divorce. So even though more people may want to get divorced, it’s actually a really bad time to do that.

Fascinating stuff. In my opinion, it’s a bad idea to make a decision about something as huge as divorce when you’re going through tough times because of other things. A marriage will go through rough times and getting through them together can really serve to strengthen your relationships.

Take a look at my two newest articles on this topic: How to Avoid Divorcing Because of the Economy and How to Delay Divorce Until the Economy Improves. Then come back and let me know what you think about those tips and whether you have any additional advice for people who are thinking about the pros and cons of divorcing in these rough economic times.

I have a confession to make. I have written tons of articles on parenting and yet I am not a parent. So, what do I know about parenting? A lot actually. You see, I worked in the field of child welfare for several years which allowed me to take numerous parenting classes, interact with many different types of parents and family counselors and even be a (foster) parent for two years.

I actually think that every single parent out there should take parenting classes. I believe that my ability to do any kind of parenting at all was heightened by the fact that I took these classes and studied up on the topic. There aren’t any exact things that you can do to be a good parent, of course, but the more that you learn about different parenting styles and parenting options, the better equipped you’re going to be to make the right choices for you as a parent.

So, yes, I offer parenting advice now and then. For example, I’ve got an article over at HubPages today with ten tips for single parents who want to start dating again but who have teenage children that are taking issue with that. I’m not saying that these tips are the right answers for every person in this situation. I’m just saying that these are some of the things I’ve seen work for people in that situation over the years so they could be a good place to start if it’s a problem that you have.

Loss is something that we all have to deal with in our lives. There’s major loss in the form of the deaths of our loved ones. There’s minor loss like when we lose a favorite piece of clothing. And then there’s all that loss in between when we lose our houses, lose our jobs, lose our sense of self or lose friendships to time. As we grow up, we learn to cope with loss.

People who have gone through major losses will probably be familiar with the 5 Stages of Grief that are traditionally accepted as being the things we go through when we are dealing with loss. We deny the loss, get angry about the loss, try to bargain not to have to go through the loss, feel depression over the loss and then finally, eventually, one day we accept the loss.

These five stages of grief are most often cited when going through dealing with the death of someone close to us. However, we experience them on some level for most losses. We definitely experience them when going through the loss of a romantic relationship. I’ve explored the five stages of grief when a relationship ends in a comprehensive article over at HubPages. The article looks at what happens in each stage and assures readers that eventually you really do get through to the other side!

One of the things that has always fascinated me most about life is relationships. All relationships interest me from sibling relationships to friendships but it’s the way that romantic relationships work that really captures my fascination.

I entered my first long-term relationship when I was fourteen. Ever since (for more than half of my life) I have been trying to figure out who I am inside and outside of relationships and how to make mine work best. What I’ve learned over the years is that relationships require a lot of hard work but they’re also the best thing that life offers us and one of the greatest ways to learn about ourselves.

I believe, in the end, that the best part of relationships is the day-to-day stuff that we do for each other when we’re in them. It’s those little moments of tenderness and kindnesses and ways we support each other and be there for each other that really make all relationships worth it.

My belief in that is why I’ve written a guide on how to make your spouse feel special every day. It’s not because I think that this is something we have to do in a long-term relationship but because it’s something that I think we should do if we want to have happy, positive, giving and loving relationships. I hope that I keep wanting to do the little things for someone for the rest of my life … and that I keep learning more and more about how relationships work because I really think that’s one of the most important things we can learn in this lifetime.