Marriage Advice From My Parents

Must they (almost) always be right??

My parents smooching it up in Borrego Springs, 2017, 58 years married.

Dear Beautiful Romantics and Practical-ists,

Growing up, my mom had a strange-but-delightful way of imparting facts-of-life to the teenage me. One memorable doozie came when I was about 13 and, while my Aussie mum enjoyed her afternoon cup of tea, I announced my intention to remain a virgin until marriage.

My mom looked up from her tea, shook her head and said:
“You have to try before you buy, love.”

Right there she let me in on something very important (and personal): sex matters. This was the first of a series of micro-installments of anything that passed as a “birds-and-bees" talk. My parents weren’t hippies (too old for that), but they weren’t puritanical either.

A few years later, when I wanted to take a co-ed camping trip, my mom considered my request with folded arms. “Well,” she sighed. “If you’re going to do it, you’ll do it in the back of a car.” My mom smiled slyly back at me. “But it’s very uncomfortable.”

My dad, on the other hand—