Families under stress

Press, 12 January 1977, Page 8

Families under stress

From JOHN ROSS, London | correspondent Britain’s marriage-guidance counsellors are finding outl that the extended ChristmasNew Year holiday helped to break up many families. i The season of good will broke down in strife for fami-j lies who found their daily I routines upset by the winter! holiday. Some distraught husbandsl and wives are going to have', to join the queue and wait; two weeks for interviews, and iin several marriage-guidance centres counsellors are working overtime to cope with the rush. Miss Joan Sullivan, head of counselling at the National

| Marriage Guidance Council, I said the 11-day break had iseemed a good idea on the) face of it. "But it was an unusual! length of lime for husbands 1 and wives to spend together! | without Ihe routines in their] lives, like going to work,! ] sending the children off to ; |school or looking after the: I house. ' “Lots of marriages tick! i over quite happily on! i routines like that. When they I are disrupted there must bei adjustments by both parties.” And, said Miss Sullivan, the cold weather would have kept families more confined, resulting in even greater stress.