USE THE LINKS AND INFORMATION BELOW TO ANSWER THE FOLLOW QUESTION IN AT LEAST 150 WORDS:
I was married in the late 1980’s. Although my husband did sleep over a few times when we dated, he parked his car far away. In a small town, people talk and we lived in the same town as our parents.
Now, this seems terribly dated and most people could care less if other people know their living situations. Lots of people live together before marriage, during, and after.
1980’s academic literature suggested that you hurt your chances of getting married by living with your potential spouse. You were LESS likely to get married if you cohabited first.
As of 2012, this was still an issue.
Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not. These negative outcomes are called the cohabitation effect.Apr 14, 2012
Even in 2019, this statistic is quoted. https://ifstudies.org/blog/premarital-cohabitation-is-still-associated-with-greater-odds-of-divorce
I am torn. I have a 26-year-old daughter. As much as I’d love for her to fall in love and get married and have kids, there it is, kids. If she is not going to have kids, I can see where getting married might not be critical? Plenty of people don’t get married and have kids as well. She can take care of herself and her property is HERS, not shared in a marriage, there are pros/cons to not being married. There are pros/cons to being married.
Thoughts on how marriage and cohabitation will change as our future greets us? How is it now for you? How do you think it will be in the future?