In the home school community and conservative Christian circles many people emphasize courtship as opposed to dating. Somewhere I have read that our American dating system of people dating and breaking up multiple times was actually a way of preparing young people to marry and then divorce over and over.
I was listening to a single college student the other day. He said he really didn’t want to go into a certain store because his “ex” worked there. He said it in about the same tone of voice that I have heard people in Divorce Care refer to their “ex”. I felt so sad.