More and more couples are living in sin. The recent report of a Census Bureau survey found that married couple households in the U.S. are now outnumbered. A hair more than half (50.3%) of households are headed by unmarried people, and 31.7% of American children are being raised in unmarried homes. The number of people reporting themselves as part of unmarried couples spiked about 14% in the past six years. It seems that the significance of “marriage” is losing ground.
The best example of these unmarried couples can be seen in Hollywood. You have got Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Sam Shepherd and Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Oprah and Stedman. These famous couples may inspire new couples to take on long-term relationships without a trip down the aisle. They seem to be a reflection of a trend that vastly expanding.
“Unmarried long-term relationships are absolutely more accepted than they were a generation ago,” says Elana Katz, MSW, a psychotherapist specializing in family therapy and divorce mediation in New York City, and a senior faculty member at the Ackerman Institute for the Family. “These relationships are also popular with different age groups for different reasons. They’re an alternative for people who were divorced and don’t want to be married again. They also allow 20-somethings to dress-rehearse for either civil or religious commitments.”
I guess there are some benefits with this. There would be a world with no divorce. You could simply break up with your long term girlfriend with no worries about alimony or who gets the car or house. But on the other hand, this unmarried lifestyle goes against many people’s beliefs. Marriage is about making a life long commitment to your partner ‘till death do you part. And, if you are not willing to make that commitment then you should not start a family and have children. If you are religious at all, then you know you would not be able to have sex until you two were married, so you could not have children or it would be a sin. Not to mention you cannot capitalize on cheaper health insurance, taxes, and having a legal binding agreement spelling out what happens if you were to get a divorce.
I know that the divorce rate is really high, but that should not discourage you from wanting to make the commitment of marriage to the one you love. Just because Bobby failed doesn’t mean you will. And, then you have the gay community trying to bring down the idea of “marriage” because in most states it is not allowed. All of these factors together have begun to lessen the significance of marriage.
