My mother's first husband has married no fewer than seven women, and that's just the ones that we know of. Every single child born to one of these marriages has been divorced at least once.

Like everything else that seems to run in families, I have to wonder if this predilection towards failed marriages is due to nature or nurture. Is my inability to hold a marriage together as genetic as my green eyes and thick waist? Or is it just that I wouldn't know a marital role model if I fell over one?

Sometimes I wonder if it's a good idea for me to marry again. I wonder if I'm qualified for the position of wife. I see the marital problems of the people around me and my first suggestion is that they shouldn't be married to each other. In my defense, I judiciously keep this suggestion to myself.

I see the fighting and the passive aggression and the nagging and I think, "Is this what you signed up for?"

My partner and I have been dating for four years now, and we have only fought once. I think that we will be happy over the long haul, but I wonder if we can do it. His parents have been married since dinosaurs walked the earth, so I know he can.

It's me I worry about.

What do you think? Is divorce genetic?