Minneapolis, MN · Issue of September 9, 2026
The relationships editor and the one divorced member of staff, which he considers the qualification.
I am the magazine's relationships editor and its only divorced staff member, which I consider the qualification rather than the disclosure. I co-parent two boys across two houses in south Minneapolis and I cover partnership, conflict and the division of labour honestly enough that my ex-wife occasionally texts me about it. I was a features writer at a men's magazine for six years and got tired of the men's magazine part.
The legal costs are the part people expect. The part that flattens households is the six months afterwards, when one income has to furnish two kitchens and both of them need a can opener.
Tom Beckett3 min
Households that run a weekly meeting report fewer arguments and better-distributed labour. Most households that start one abandon it inside six weeks, and the reason is almost never the one they give.
Tom Beckett2 min
Couples do not avoid talking about money because it is complicated. They avoid it because every previous attempt turned into an argument about character. Here is a forty-minute version that does not, taken from households where it worked.
Tom Beckett3 min
Return-to-office mandates have split a lot of households into one adult at a desk in the spare room and one adult on a train. It changes the division of labour immediately, invisibly, and almost always in the same direction.
Tom Beckett3 min