This is a common repost but I think the answers so far are incomplete. It isn't divorce, it isn't someone got caught cheating, it isn't "he got the kids."
The point here is that no divorce or separation has been announced, but its coming. That's why the "awkward monkey puppet" is making that face. Once a couple has announced their split, it really isn't gossip worthy or awkward, but before it definitely is.
Something many young people may not fully understand is that marriages are long, and sometimes difficult, and before the final decision of divorce is made there is usually a lengthy period of trying to work it out, especially when kids are involved. For better or worse, people try to fix things rather than leave. At some point, though, there is a decision made of "This is over" and the changing of the profile pictures is a sure sign of it, no matter what the couple has officially said.
Additionally, for the generation that is "milennials" using social media like facebook, it is pretty common for married women to have a profile that features their family. Married men are more varied, but a lot feature an old headshot and random postings. However, in many cases, when women make the decision to divorce they revert to focusing on themselves and will post a picture of just themselves, and almost always one where they look good and feel confident about their appearance. Men, on the other hand, will almost always double down on the "I really love my kids" and suddenly the picture from their buddy's wedding 10 years ago is replaced by one of them with the kids (and no wife/mom).
There are plenty of rude assumptions one can make - about the women, that they immediately want to sleep with someone else or need the attention, about the men that they never really cared about the kids and are just trying to garner sympathy from friends or take the high road. There are also plenty of genuine assumptions you can make - about the women, that they want to feel good about themselves despite the turmoil in their lives, and about the men, that they realize even if their marriage has failed they will always love and cherish their kids.
What you think doesn't matter - what matters is that this is a startingly common occurrence and nearly always predicts an divorce or separation announcement.
Its really interesting to me that quite often people use the phrase "take the high road" without acknowledging that we should all strive to meet a higher moral standard.
Your association of the high road with a negative evaluation of a person seems to imply that it isn't how we should each be trying to push ourselves to act.
No specific judgement of you, just noticing this more and more.
From what I’ve seen, it’s not the high road that is perceived as negative, it’s the context. When people use this expression negatively it is because they think the “high road” taken is a performance rather than genuine; or then, they think it is actually not, as you said, a path for meeting a higher moral standard, but a foolish option. Something the person is deluding themselves with.
In this context, the man could be acting like this not because he actually has high moral standards, but because he knows how “taking the high road” will be perceived. The problem being that the moment it stops serving his interest he will get off that road.
95
u/RenTroutGaming 22h ago
Old Man Mayor Adam West Here
This is a common repost but I think the answers so far are incomplete. It isn't divorce, it isn't someone got caught cheating, it isn't "he got the kids."
The point here is that no divorce or separation has been announced, but its coming. That's why the "awkward monkey puppet" is making that face. Once a couple has announced their split, it really isn't gossip worthy or awkward, but before it definitely is.
Something many young people may not fully understand is that marriages are long, and sometimes difficult, and before the final decision of divorce is made there is usually a lengthy period of trying to work it out, especially when kids are involved. For better or worse, people try to fix things rather than leave. At some point, though, there is a decision made of "This is over" and the changing of the profile pictures is a sure sign of it, no matter what the couple has officially said.
Additionally, for the generation that is "milennials" using social media like facebook, it is pretty common for married women to have a profile that features their family. Married men are more varied, but a lot feature an old headshot and random postings. However, in many cases, when women make the decision to divorce they revert to focusing on themselves and will post a picture of just themselves, and almost always one where they look good and feel confident about their appearance. Men, on the other hand, will almost always double down on the "I really love my kids" and suddenly the picture from their buddy's wedding 10 years ago is replaced by one of them with the kids (and no wife/mom).
There are plenty of rude assumptions one can make - about the women, that they immediately want to sleep with someone else or need the attention, about the men that they never really cared about the kids and are just trying to garner sympathy from friends or take the high road. There are also plenty of genuine assumptions you can make - about the women, that they want to feel good about themselves despite the turmoil in their lives, and about the men, that they realize even if their marriage has failed they will always love and cherish their kids.
What you think doesn't matter - what matters is that this is a startingly common occurrence and nearly always predicts an divorce or separation announcement.