Ok, evensteven, I get it. You said "any man" but you weren't looking for a real life example, you just wanted to make generalizations. Let's look at your rebuttals.

1) If you want an exception, marry someone you find exceptional

2) He can cook. He's a pretty good cook, actually. But between work and school, it seems like the least I can do to make dinner while he is doing homework.

3) I am a quality inspector for a living. Trust me, the whole point of having someone else proofread your stuff is that they catch what you may have missed. He is finishing his degree this summer, and I am going back to school in the fall, so we will both be professionals making decent money in a few years.

4) I am sorry you have never dated a girl who you could really be friends with. My husband and I were best of friends before we started dating, we share the same interests and enjoy each other's company. If you think that is a bad thing, you are missing out. I am 27 and he is 35.

5) Yes, of course he could find it elsewhere, but why would you go out hunting for sex when all you have to do is leer charmingly at the person next to you?

6) Drinks at a bar are damn expensive, then you have to get home drunk, what a pain in the ass. Besides, all the pubs around here use mint syrup to make a julep, but I use real fresh mint. Much tastier.

7) He would obviously have to pause his video game to get a beer from the bartender, wouldn't he?

8) You see, the way life insurance works, someone has to DIE to collect. He has life insurance, but if he died, it would not really matter much to him how big that check was, would it?

The wonderful think about this new modern era is that he doesn't have to support me, because I support myself. If, gods forbid, we should ever spawn, I would still be expected to bring home my half of the bacon. I would go stir-crazy staying home all day anyway. Besides, it's not like you can afford to raise a family on one person's salary anymore!

Of all my friends, I only know three couples where one person works and the other stays home. In one case it is a woman working while her guy milks his inheritance for a break from a chef's 70 hour insane work week, in one case it is a man whose wife has a brand new infant, and in one case it is a man whose wife returned from Iraq with some serious PTSD.

Everyone else splits household finances equally.

Perhaps you should take off those goth-coloured glasses and look at REAL people. If all you are doing is polling the bitter 40 year old divorced men at the bar, you are not getting accurate information representative of the whole population.

Freki