I do -- until I get frustrated by J. W. Hodge, Contributing writer   Pat Purpus never thought that her dreams of growing old together and starting a family with the man she loved would end in divorce papers. Eighteen years and five children later, the unimagined came true. With nearly two-thirds of all conventional marriages ending in divorce, society has had to swallow the fact that divorce has become the answer to problems of stress and frustration in marriage. The complete sharing of roles between the working mother and father seems to have brought about a cloud of confusion as to which role one should play, causing a new area of frustration in the relationship. The days of having a family like you saw on "Nick at Night" are all over. We are living in a society where both parents are going to work and coming home to a house filled with everything but free time to spend with their spouse or their family. The Friday night exchanges of custody, the act of having to divvy up the responsibilities of which parent is going to little league or soccer, seem to be easier and less stressful then living a life with commitment and devotion to more then your career. In our busy lives, things like work and self satisfaction have become more sacred of a bond then marriage. This self serving attitude has put us on a path that seems to only have room for us and the things that are going right in our lives. It seems that even children have taken a backseat to our personal happiness. With the new liberation of divorce, children have had to accommodate the needs of the separating parents and even become in some cases, the emotional rag-doll that is being torn in two by the fighting duo. "We get seven to 10 calls a year from divorced parents wanting to see their child's file in an effort to build a case against the parent that currently has custody," Ross Gregory, Galena High School principal said. Though these legal battles are extreme and not as common as the clean, lets-end-this-nicely type of divorces, they still happen and are effecting our society everyday. We are not only being forced to think about the problems that are being caused, we are paying for them. Through tax money we are fighting the war with "dead-beat dads" and the continuing problem of single parent homes. The fact that we are being effected should tell us that we are the ones that either have to accept divorce as the thing to do when you have a problem, or find a way to educate society on how serious divorce is. It's not that marriage has become any less important, it is just that the emergency exit door at the end of the hallway has gotten a little bigger. The thought of entering into a marriage still seems to have the same meaning and importance to everyone who is taking the sacred vows, itís just a matter of how long the meaning will hold true. The thought of divorce being a bad decision is not always the case. When things are stressful in the home for the whole family you could be doing more harm than good. "If a marriage is bad and the couple is staying together for the kids, it is worse then getting a divorce sometimes," Allen Ritchie, Galena High School counselor said. The thought of divorce is not one that should always be looked at as a copout or a way to end poor planning. Divorce plays a very important role in society by giving people the right to make mistakes. The problem lies now in how easy it is to feel as though you have made a mistake and you want out. Society is filled with deadlines and distractions that not only put a strain on the spouse, but a strain on the amount of energy that they are willing to put into the relationship. The simple fact that we have more frustration in our lives and the door is open wider makes it that much easier to give up and eliminate one more frustration that seems to be plaguing us everyday. With the idea that divorce has become morally neutral, it looks as though we are building a society that will always have a way out.     copyright May 1998 Nevada Outpost http://www.jour.unr.edu/outpost