Cohabitiation

While reading the section on cohabitation this week, I started pondering about the consequences that came from it. I instantly thought of many people that are involved in cohabitation. Cohabitation is and arrangement in which a couple live together in a committed relationship but are not formally married (Berger, 2011).  My one friend was engaged for 5 years and was living with her boyfriend for the last 2 years. I kept asking her when she was going to plan the marriage, but she kept saying her fiance kept pushing it off. Eventually they fought so bad that they broke off the engagement and had to move back into their parents house. I thought to myself how much my ego would drop if I had to move back in with my parents after being on my own for so long along with the pain of the breakup. This is where I feel that living with each other before marriage is a hard situation. Of course there are divorces but I believe that filing for a divorce is a lot harder than breaking off an engagement or relationship. This is why I think it's a wise idea not to live with your significant other before marriage. On the opposing side, people say that living with each other before marriage gives you an idea of what it will be like if you were married. This is a very good point from the opposing view. I know that when I went on vacation for a week with my one boyfriend, I knew the relationship would never work out in the future. This was because I realized his values on the way one should live and the values I had were totally different. I would not have known that if I would not have lived with him that one week on vacation. I have had the opposite effect with another boyfriend where I knew he probably would make a great long term boyfriend and husband based off of the week we spent in the mountains together. Although I would not recommend living with my significant other before marriage for myself, I can see why others would benefit from it.

Berger, Kathleen. (2011). The Developing Person Through the Life Span. New York, NY : Worth Publishers.