Forgiving a Cheater

When a spouse cheats, many lives are changed irrevocably. Lately, infidelity has been gracing the pages of magazines and television headlines. While I have no idea what is wrong with these men, I’m more curious about the women beside them. While I know women cheat, I’m focusing mostly on men because they’re the ones saturating the media right now.

The numbers of men in high-powered, influential positions who have devastated and demoralized their wives lately is fascinating to me! What I find even more amazing is the fact that the wives, more often than not, stay right there. Whether standing beside him as he fakes a tearful public apology or trying hard to smile in dignity as she publicly appears with him at a social event, the wives “stand by their man”. My question is, “WHY?”

I don’t stand in judgment of these victimized women. I feel sorry for them. I hate that they married men who are so cowardly that they cannot tell their wives in private before news of his infidelity is scrolling across CNN during the nightly news. I hate that the father of their children is barely fit to breathe, let alone be an example for their sons. I do wonder why women blame themselves for affairs. Why do they ask what short comings they have that caused their husbands to cheat? Why do they put up with it?

I have often argued with my husband that men will drop a cheating wife like a bad habit, and women will actually beg the cheater to come back to them?!

So that is my question to each of you: Are women more likely to reconcile with a cheater than men? If so, why do you think so? I would love to hear your thoughts. Don’t leave me hanging!