Can't we just shack up?

Can’t we just “shack up?”   Well we could but……

James Wilson  SAYS  (hattrick Hugh Hewitt)
Why does marriage beget loyalty when cohabitation does not? The difference is that marriage follows a public, legally recognized ceremony in which each person swears before friends and witnesses to love, honor, and cherish the other until death parts them. Cohabitation merely means shacking up. Of course, many marriages end in an easily arranged divorce, but even in this new era of no-fault divorces, they still must be done before a magistrate and be accompanied by a careful allocation of property and children. Perhaps because of the acknowledged impermanence of their condition, cohabiting couples, compared to married ones, are more vulnerable to depression, have lower levels of happiness, experience more cases of physical abuse, are more likely to be murdered, are more likely to be sexually unfaithful, and more likely to be poor. Children living with cohabiting parents are, compared to those living with married ones, much more likely to witness their parents’ relationships end, to have emotional and behavioral problems, to experience educational problems, and to be poor.

(Do yourself a favor and read the WHOLE TAMALE)


“Shacking Up” is one of those things that looks so easy, comfortable, fun and problem free.  For the guys it’s  SEX without commitment and someone else to pay or help pay the bills.  For many of the women it’s also help in paying the bills and the sex just might lead to marriage.  However as the research has now been saying for THREE DECADES;  It doesn’t work!  Shacking up couples don’t tend to get married (but sometimes they do when it is too late) and the reverberations from the failed relationship never seem to end.  Emotional and psychological scars; hardening of hearts, loss of innocence, loss of trust, loss of soul are just a part of the cost.

But hey, it looks like fun!