I would have spent my forties in a full-blown midlife crisis and being too afraid to change careers, I would probably have changed my wife instead.

Statistically more likely that in that alternative universe your wife would have "exchanged" you due to your career-stuck mopey and/or grim behavior. Also, spousal "exchange" is as likely to result from shift towards better alignment with purpose. For example, one of the factors that favored dumping my first husband was that I was happy/fulfilled running the book business I had started several years before we split. ergo relative lack of happiness/fulfillment in my marriage became more apparent. Also, the midlife male pattern is more likely to be some variation on acquiring a second wife or "wife" rather than "changing" wives. Although (now that I think about it) for introverts it would more often seem like "changing" rather than "adding.*" IOW, roughly analogous to tendency towards Serial Mastery in career-like fields for an INTJ, when not otherwise handled in a manner equivalent to simply having a case of Soylent delivered on schedule adequate to address hunger (in which case the particular flavor/identity of the Soylent would be fairly irrelevant.)

*This also varies depending on masculine/feminine perspective. For example, the masculine perspective might inform him that he has definitely "changed" wives, because no longer sexually interested in first wife. While the feminine perspective of new wife might inform her that she has just been "added" to first wife, because husband just gave first wife check for $5000 for roof repair on her house and is also going out shopping for Xmas presents for mutual kids and having lunch with first wife.

Statistics: Posted by 7Wannabe5 — Sat Oct 24, 2026 6:29 am

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