Civilized Benefits and Relationship Durations

A Japanese firm provides paid time off for breakups and sale shopping. Now, that's a place with it's priorities straight! 20-somethings get one day off for heartbreak each year. 30-somethings get two. I read 2 implications into these policies: 1) older women feel more deeply and/or are less emotionally resilient; and 2) most relationships turn over once a year.

Japanese firm offers "heartache leave" for staff, Mon Jan 28, 2008

I have noticed relationship duration patterns:
3 months -- when you're still dating a representative. Even in relationships that last longer (< 1 year), things come up in the first 3 months that often end up being the deal breakers. I'm talking about personality incompatibilities or realizing you don't like the other person that much. I have a handful of data points.
under 1 year -- These relationships end more because they just aren't with the right people than because of some specific problem. Personalities are usually pretty compatible but you don't love each other enough and/or you realize the life you would have together isn't one that will make you happy. I have a handful of data points.
2 years -- These are relationships with increasingly smaller versions of the same problems as <1 year relationships.
...Relationships that end beyond that (time-wise), end as a result of growing apart/developing destructive patterns together or otherwise not being happy in the life you make together. Sometimes relationships go to the next time stage because breaking up seems like more trouble than it's worth. It's all pretty fluid actually.

Brian says that modern life breaks up into 3-5 year cycles, and you just can't expect anything to last longer than 5 years. I think it just depends on what you both want to do with your lives and how deeply you love each other.