Post-holiday divorces: the harsh return to reality

September divorces: when holidays expose a relationship crisis

How many couples have returned from August and, instead of collecting souvenirs, have collected their lawyer's paperwork? The post-holiday phenomenon isn't just about going back to work: September is the month of divorces par excellence. There's no surprise here, but rather a foretold story.

The thesis is simple: many couples tolerate each other the rest of the year thanks to routine, mismatched schedules, and obligations. Then holidays arrive—those four weeks of forced cohabitation—and they discover they have nothing to say to each other, or worse, that what they do have to say is unbearable. Two people who share a roof and expenses but have built parallel lives come together: separate accounts, independent friends, their own hobbies. Marriage becomes a business partnership without profits.

The holiday factor: too much time together

Holidays are that laboratory where cracks turn into chasms. You spend more time together than usual, and what you tolerate during the year—lack of communication, quirks, uncomfortable silences—becomes unbearable. It's no coincidence that many of those trips are designed to "fix the relationship": when you return and reality remains the same, it explodes.

There's also a pattern of repetition: couples who have had previous crises, reconcile, and try again, only for the next period of intensive cohabitation to reactivate the conflict. The cycle can last for years.

Christmas, the other key date

September isn't the only peak. Christmas dinners—with their debates about politics, vaccines, and mothers-in-law—are also a classic trigger. The difference is duration: a three-week holiday generates more friction than three days of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. But both dates confirm that forced cohabitation is a relationship's thermometer.

Prenuptial agreements: solution or symptom?

Faced with this reality, some choose to protect themselves. Separation of assets, pre-agreed shared custody, and agreements on 50/50 duties and obligations are gaining ground. It's about putting a name to what already is: a contract. Irony? Perhaps, but those who sign it know it's better to prevent than to litigate.

With these differentials, the question is why anyone still gets married without a plan B. The answer, as always, is the heart. But the heart doesn't pay lawyers.

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