How many marriages have failed and ended up in a court? How many children have been lost because of their parents’ negligence towards them? Well, a lot of people are having this thinking that surely cohabitation before marriage is better for the reasons that you’ll get to know your partner more, and be more experienced in raising a family. However, these reasons are so shallow in terms of legality and morally based understanding of “family” and “relationship”.
Today, I would like to talk to you about first, the effect of cohabitation on our society, family, and the relationship between the two parties.
I’ll begin by telling you about the effect of cohabitation on our society.
In our modern world, people tend to experiment with a lot of things including relationships which could also lead to a more dangerous society with a lot of crimes and violence’s. Domestic violence is one of the results that could be brought up by living in together. It is proven that cohabiters are much more vicious than the married couples because men have this thinking that they are just engaging into that kind of relationship because of the suitability of the relationship, while on the other hand, women think that after that “live-in” relationship, they will be married. In this case, the men has this higher- position than women.
I’m sure that a lot of you, Scholasticans, are already seeing the negative effect of this cohabitation on our society especially with women. But you might be asking also the effect of this cohabitation on families?
Let me tell you that the family is the first social institution created by man. Therefore man alone can establish a good family relationship or a bad family relationship. In addition, a study shows that married fathers are more likely than cohabiting fathers to assist their children. The responsibility comes within already. Mostly, children whose parents are just cohabiting are more likely to experience depression and suicidal attempts since they are much prone to the involvement of their parent’s separation.
Do you want this to happen to your future children? You can see that it’s really difficult in raising a family and educating your children comes first with the chief educators which are the parents.
On the other hand, let’s see what could be the effect of cohabitation on the relationship of the two parties. Cohabiting is like living with no certainty. So what are you going to expect if there is no really a true responsibility with the other half? This is one of the problems that arise in a cohabiting relationship, the lack of responsibility. Cohabiting couples experience more of dissatisfaction than the married couples, simply because, partners who just cohabitate have this thinking of giving up the relationship if they think that it should be over. In just one blink, their relationship could be over. Unlike in a married relationship, two parties are bound with the responsibilities and bound with a promise to each other.
So as you can see, cohabiting is really not a test to your relationship. It is not a substitute to marriage because of its negative effects on family, society, and relationship with the other.
What if in the future, someone will ask you to be their cohabiting partner ? Would you grab it? Do you want to live in a life with no assurance? Well first, think of these effects that could start an undesirable change in your life. Please, let’s make a difference. Let’s not commit cohabitation.
