Grace Period

StarTV has been showing re-runs of Friends which I do not mind watching because I do find the show funny. All of us remember the on-off relationship Ross has with Rachel. The other night they "kind of" broke up over the phone because Ross was upset with Rachel spending time with her colleague. On the same night, out of jealousy, anger and whatever other age old excuses, he responded to a girl hitting on him in a club and this of course led to him waking up the next morning with this girl in his apartment. Now hit the rewind button. The night before; after Rachel had the argument with Ross on the phone she regretted it and decided to go see Ross next morning to patch things up!

Last week, Callie from Grey's slept with McSteamy because she "kind of" broke up with George. Again, hit the rewind button and you'll find George regretting the argument and wanting to make up with Callie. But of course, the deed is already done (by Callie).

Last night in Lipstick Jungle, Victory broke up with Joe Bennett after she found out that he's bought over her company. And the preview to next week's Lipstick Jungle, Victory regretted the break up and called Joe, wanting to get back together with him. Joe picked up the phone and there was another woman right next to him in his bed!

If this pattern could be seen throughout completely unrelated TV series, just think how common it actually is in real life.

So when Rachel found out from Gunther that Ross slept with this other woman, she hit the roof. Who wouldn't? Throughout her rage, my hubby kept saying "but they broke up." Yes, from his technical viewpoint, they did kind of broke up.

So what's the moral of the story?

1. Mean what you say or don't say what you don't mean.

2. Never threaten to break up when you know that you don't really want to.

3. Litmus test: when you say you want to break-up, please run through your mind that he/she might be snogging/shagging another person in the next 12 hours, and will you be ok with that.

Fourthly, I think there should be a universal implied grace period when a couple breaks up. Perhaps the grace period should be about a month, then you could really think through if you really want to break up. And in the mean time, no sleeping around for the month.