Should you live together before marriage?
Mark Twain’s quote, “God’s great cosmic joke on the human race was requiring that men and women live together in marriage”, outlines how difficult the institution can be after the wedding bells. Marriage is hard work, and in the US, some 48 per cent of women now move in with their mates as a first step before getting married.
It’s a way of testing the waters before taking the plunge, and for many couples it has proved effective in ironing out the many kinks before tying the knot. Do you think it’s wise for couples to live together for a while before getting married?
Mariana, 39:
I think that a couple should live together as a trial period for maybe three months to see if their relationship will survive them actually living with each other.
Rohan, 42:
I’m sorry I didn’t do this with my last girlfriend. She would come over and visit on weekends and we got along well then I asked her to move in and that was when the relationship started to fall apart. She did things different from I did. She was what I considered to be nasty; she didn’t clean up after herself, the strands of her hair weave were everywhere and she clogged up my shower drain with it. She stored up her panties, so when she washed she would have up to 40 plus panties on the clothes line at once. There was even more than this. It was just too much, so I asked her to leave.
O’Mar, 25:
I strongly believe in doing this. Because living with someone is the true test of any relationship. I watched my mother and stepfather go through this and it was even harder on us the children because not only did we now have to live with a new father, but we also had to live with his children as well and it was hard. But as time went by everything worked itself out and we became one big family. I can’t say happy, but we made it.
Alwyn, 34:
Not a lot of couples give deep thought to living together because it’s just another step in a relationship. But as someone who has been through it and is still going through it, it’s something that even if you did it before officially living together, it doesn’t prepare you for the long haul of being in each other’s space all day and night.
Ian, 38:
I would advise any couple to do this. Live with each other before you make another move in the relationship. See how best you both get along by living together before saying the big I Do.
