201621574

English Composition 2 (Tues/Thur)

Should Couples Live Together Before Marriage?
Marriage is the commitment or promise you make with your loved partners. It should
be done in very courteous way that it does not interfere the day of the couples wedding.
However, there are things that is crucial for couples to know before getting married. Living
together before marriage might augment the possibilities of divorce but it is well known that
ones spouse should be well acquainted to another before the actual married life begin.
Couples should live together before marriage to build stronger fellowship and reduce
problematic situations after their marriage. There are several things that could be helpful for
couples to discern before marriage.
First and foremost, couples should live together before marriage to start to form an
identity working as a team. As it could be new for many couples getting married for the first
time, living daily life with two different styles will be problematic. Living right after the couples
marriage will not teach them lessons of how to deal with certain situations when they are
living together. However, They can learn (or not) how to balance their relationship, careers
and even finances together. (Mona Lisa Macalino), living before marriage can help couples
to go through problems they did not know before moving in together. Furthermore, most
important issue can be brought up more causally such as having children. When you
consider that 20 percent of cohabitating women get knocked up in the first year, you might
want to have that conversation so you know whether or not hell leave you holding the baby
if you become an oops statistic. (Damona Hoffman). Not many but some couples have
problems with individual opinions about having children or not and it relates with their current
financial status and future plans. Living before marriage can help them to map out practical

issues such as when or why should they have children or not. Couples need to be aware of
different life styles they have been pursuing while living before marriage and acquainted with
individuals likes and dislikes.
Secondly, couples living before marriage will have chances with experiencing actual
married life before the actual battle begins. Couples often have fantasies of marriage but
Let's face it: Marriage isn't all romance, Masini says. Many couples don't understand the
mundane day to day living involved in a long-term commitment (Jillian Kramer). Living
together before marriage give couples chances to try different commitments in different
situations. Prerequisite learning of married life also give couples ideas about their sex life. It
is very often for couples to break up or divorce due to their problems with sexual
satisfactions are not in meet. It is obvious that most couples does have experiences of
sexual relationships but it is more realistic to people when they are actually living under the
same roof every day. Both partners will have respective fantasies of sex life after getting
married and more the fantasy is unrealistic more dissatisfying the aftermath will be. As
sexual relationships are mostly lopsided to husbands role, stresses from work and other
factors that interfere male to be fatigued will influence negatively on couples sexual life.
Dissatisfying sexual life often greatly influence on couples future married life. It is common
that people get divorce due to few sexual relationships between them and having sex is very
important for couples which sex could lead to creating connections among couples in their
marriage.
Thirdly, couples living together before marriage will have chances to prevent
upcoming malaises. One of the reason couples break up after their marriage is lacking
communication in daily life. When youre in a live-in relationship, you communicate more
with your partner. You understand what they want without them saying it. Live-in
relationships help you bridge that communication gap which occurs when youre both in
different places. Better communication also helps in a successful marriage. (Aishwarya

Rao). Live-in relationships will give you time to spend time with your partner, which you could
use to discover more about each other. Communications such as stories from each others
works funny thing that happened to you or your partner will help couples to build stronger
relationships. At this level of communication, you will also have chance to hear about the
partners opinions or philosophy about successful marriage. Furthermore, finance
management could be one of the biggest advantages of living together before marriage.
Both individuals will develop an understanding on how to allocate each salaries into their
living expenses. Experiencing financial side of marriage before actual wedding will help
couples to manage their financial incomes more flexibly. Many marriages fail because both
partners fail to face the seriousness of it. Or worst case scenario, ones partner could
develop cold feet before marriage because they could be scared to be married and that
marriage is not that worth it anymore. The increase of universal divorce rate is another
reason why marriage doesnt seem like the ultimate goal in ones life. However, living in
together will help people to test-run the marriage, and break down the sense of
incompatibility of living together.
On the contrary, some people disagree about couples living together before
marriage and claim that couples who cohabit before marriage are much more likely to
divorce afterward. Couples who live together before marriage tend to be more concerned on
obtaining satisfaction from the other partner. In marriage, by contrast, spouses tend to focus
more on giving satisfaction to the other person. (John Flynn) One of the biggest problem
with cohabitation is that husband and wife often start living together for very different motives
and goals. While many women consider marriage as a process, men often treat marriage for
convenience not as an important promise with his spouse. Disharmony starts from here
when male and female start to live together before marriage and slowly face the matter
practically. According to research of Yale University sociologist Neil Bennett, 80 percent of
women cohabiting before marriage are more likely to divorce than women who had not lived
with their husbands before marriage. The research insist that couples who live before

marriage often undermines the legitimacy of formal marriage which reduces commitment of
marriage. This could be a huge problem to many couples who are unsure about their
marriage which could lead them to reconsider about their marriage.
Lastly, couples living together before marriage could have positive influences for
their future life which are practical and financial experiences. Core purposes of cohabitation
are to decrease the chances of problematic circumstances after marriage and strengthen the
couples connection. There are also counter arguments of cohabitation for couples who
contain different motives and concept of marriage. However, such difficulties affect couples
less than to those who live before marriage. Now a days many couples struggle from
breaking up due to difference of personalities and so on, cohabitation could be an ultimate
solution for upcoming hardships.

References
Flynn, John. "Living Together Dangerously." Living Together Dangerously. N.p., 30 June
2008. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
Hoffman, Damona. "6 Crucial Questions to Ask Before Moving In Together." The Huffington
Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
Kramer, Jillian. "5 Benefits of Living Together Before Marriage." Brides. N.p., 8 Apr. 2016.
Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
Macalino, Mona Lisa. "5 Reasons You Shouldn't Say 'I Do' Without Living Together First." 5
Reasons You MUST Live Together Before Marriage | YourTango. N.p., 3 Apr. 2015. Web. 19
Dec. 2016
Rao, Aishwarya. "10 Advantages Of Living Together Before Marriage." Listovative. N.p., 22
July 2016. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.