IS MARRIAGE ON ITS WAY OUT? This week on Daytime I’m talking about a brand new report from the National Center for Health Statistics found that not only are unmarried couples living together more common, they’re having children and staying together even longer than before. Our relationships coach Lisa Daily is here to talk about the future of marriage and why living together is fast becoming the new normal.
What’s the percentage of women who live with a male partner as a “first union”
A whopping 48%, according to the report. Shacking up is officially mainstream.
How many couples who live together first eventually get married versus breaking up?
Within three years of living together, 40% of women later married their partner, 32% continued to live together, and 27% had broken up. Here’s one big reason to make sure you’re extra careful in the contraception department: 19% of women got pregnant and/or gave birth in the first year of living with someone. Yep.
Why are couples less likely to get married if they live together first? This is actually a false assumption. After all, if you live with someone before you marry them, and you find out the person is a raging lunatic, or an alcoholic, or is just not a good fit — is a more successful outcome that you live together and break-up? Or that you get married and then get divorced. Marriage is not the only available happy ending, and it’s far better to make a small relationship mistake than a big one.
Are certain demographic groups more likely to choose living together over marriage?
Only 23% of first unions were marriages, a decrease from 30% in 2002 and 39% in 1995. For all races and ethnic groups (except Asian women), the number of ladies who cohabited as a “first union” increased. Hispanic women led the live-in charge, up 57%. White women were up 43%. African-American women up 39%.
What effect does this have on couples and children in the long haul?
Financially speaking, there is still an advantage to being married. (Which is yet another reason why it should be available to all.) Over the course of a lifetime, all those 1100 tax breaks add up. The most important thing for kids is a sense of security in their families, which a marriage license (or lack of one) does not guarantee.
xo,
Do you need this book or not? One of the biggest reasons for breakups in serious relationship is cheating — and there’s a significantly higher risk for those who are living together, which is why every woman needs to know the signs. Forewarned is forearmed, ladies: Is He Cheating?
(c) Copyright 2001-2013 by Lisa Daily. All Rights Reserved. Plus me on Google, darling, would you please? Thanks!
Google+
