7 year itch

[Redbel]

Why is this phrase associated with marriage.

[jno]

there was a film with Marilyn Monroe in which a book (non-existent, i think) claimed that men start to have affairs after seven years of marriage. I don't know if any of this is true or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Year_It ch

[Rod Mac]

ave a wee look at this - interesting... :-)


http://www.uliveandlearn.com/lessons/lesson.cf m?lesid=156&pg=1

[Quizmonster]

The earliest recorded use of the phrase 'seven years' itch' was in Thoreau's Walden, published in 1854. That, however, had nothing to do with marriage particularly, but only to the passage of time generally. Here is the earliest quote regarding marriage and its tendency to become a bit stale and irritating after the early years...
"May you have the sevenyear itch," was answered, "I hope your wife eats crackers in bed." (Sandburg's People published in 1936.)
Clearly, then, it refers to how attitudes change towards habits that may oiriginally have been endearing but have now become just annoying. As suggested above, such changes in a marriage are quite likely to occur at the seven year stage.
(And what a marvellous film the Monroe/Ewell one referred to by J above was!)

[VS Prasad]

Pothole # 4: The Seven-Year Itch Experts observe
that this phase is often characterized by feelings
of restlessness and unhappiness over the state of
your union. "Over time, people can find themselves
drifting further and further apart and
communicating less,"

http://www.lifetimetv.com/reallife/relation/fe atures/potholes2.html

http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/feature s/seven-year-itch

PREDICTING THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH:

New Study Looks at Predicting the Rate of Change
in Marital Quality During the First 10 Years of
Marriage.

http://www.apa.org/releases/marriage.html

According to the National Center for Health
Statistics, the median duration of couples who
divorced between 1989 and 1990 was 7.2 years.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/reallife/relation/fe atures/potholes.html