hitched

cohabitation comes with much of the emotional and logistical baggage of marriage without the clarity and legal protection of actually being married, which can cause even more strife if one partner does want to tie the knot and the other is hesitant.

But we avoided cons. We didn’t have to have arguments over who was doing the most cleaning or if someone snored in bed because we went our separate ways after our dates.

lived with their parents rent-free

to splurge on vacations and the lavish wedding of their dreams.

Young couples in particular hope to enter their marriages on a strong financial footing, Smock says, with security over their income, employment, and a down payment. As a result, only the most economically advantaged people may end up saying “I do.”

when children are involved, many people choose to marry because it is easier for married parents to navigate institutions like schools and doctor’s offices

Without the legal guardrails of divorce, divvying up property and assets can be messy

Moving in, regardless of relationship status, increases the likelihood of a couple staying together by making it harder to break up

how special it made the actual feeling of getting married

signed a lease on a shared apartment

You don’t live together until you tie the knot.

Easier access to birth control and legalized abortion meant women could pursue college and careers with greater control over when to have children. With this newfound flexibility and income, marriage was less of a way to shore up resources for a woman and her children and more something to choose

In the early to mid-20th century, cohabiting couples fell into similar demographics as those who had sought common-law marriages, Kuperberg says: people of color and those with low education levels.

common-law marriage — a legal marriage between two people who lived together but who did not receive a marriage certificate or get married in a religious ceremony

redefined the place of marriage in society — and set new standards for when a person feels “ready” to wed

Wider acceptance of unmarried cohabitation allows couples who previously would have been considered “nontraditional” more flexibility to live their lives authentically.

Those who have made that prior commitment, whether by getting engaged or by committing their lives to one another before sharing a home, are more likely to stay together

ack of concern

eally only “works” with a high amount ofstandardization

local priests actually have avery circumscribed amount of freedom regarding liturgical practices

as really real community incontradistinction to the virtual (read: less real or even unreal)community online

pandemic has made digital cultureand technology a new interest for many people in the church

the smoothness I touch connects me to her