Are cohabitating couples really happier overall than their married peers?
The Journal of Marriage and Family recently conducted a study which found that there are few advantages for married couples as far as psychological well-being, health or social ties, compared with unmarried couples living together. The study shows that while there are great benefits to marriage and cohabitation over the single life, these benefits weaken as couples depart the "honeymoon period."
I'm engaged to a man I have been living with for the past four years, and we're doing just fine.
After reading a recent study in Glamour which reexamined the long-propagated myth that couples who live together before marriage have a higher chance of divorce, I felt ridiculously triumphant, wagging my finger in a self-aggrandizing "I told you so" to society at large.
How to get the romantic spark back in your marriage.
Do you and your husband feel more like people who just live together rather than people who are married to one another? Yeah, we know the feeling. But, you can get the spark back! 5 Ways to Reignite the Spark In Your Relationship
In this video, Therapist, Social Worker and YourTango Expert Elisabeth LaMotte offers her advice for how to get that loving feeling back in your relationship. You and your husband shouldn't just live together – you should live together in love!
More people are delaying marriage or not marrying at all. But WHY? Look at this sad pretty bride!
Although we've written about marriage trends in the US, some recent articles about marriage in Asia got my attention. From all the way around the world, marriage is changing and becoming less important.
"Why should he buy the cow if he can get the milk for free?" doesn't exactly fly anymore.
Have you ever had your parent or grandparent say something like, "Why should he buy the cow when he can get the milk for free?" It's so dehumanizing and silly, but of course they mean well, and you can't completely blame them — that was just their mentality growing up. Moving in together before you were Mr. and Mrs. just didn't happen. Now, it's practically all that happens. And guess what? Turns out, it's not hurting all of us "cows!"
To move in or not to move in, that is the question! Is it OK for folks to shack up before marriage?
Periodically, I meet people who still hold fast to the idea of not living with your significant other unless there's a wedding addendum attached to the live-in love agreement. Personally, I don't care one way or the other if a couple decides to "play house." However, there are some definite old-schoolers, traditionalists, and religious types who, in no uncertain terms, will not go for "living in sin" — ever. But if I ever decide to get married again, there's no way I'm not moving in with her first. Here's why.
An antiquated Florida law has cohabitating couples facing jail time.
Looking for a place to live with your boyfriend in Florida? There's a cozy one-room studio behind bars waiting for you. A state law that dates back to the 1800's condemns opposite-sex unmarried couples living under the same roof.
Research suggests that living with two unmarried parents may be as harmful to children as divorce.
Divorce rates are finally dropping, but that doesn't mean people are forging stronger family units. With fewer people getting married these days, the number of kids living in households with two unmarried parents is on the rise. And, according to new research released today by the National Marriage Project and the Institute for American Values, that may be as bad for kids as dealing with a parent's divorce.
College-aged couples are increasingly opting out of cohabitation in favor of sexy sleepovers.
A new study suggest that "adult sleepovers" without cohabitation are on the rise. According to the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, an increasing number of coupled twenty-somethings have struck the perfect balance between casual dating and cohabitation. The "stayover trend" involves spending three to seven nights per week together while maintaining separate homes
The bottom line: Don't date somebody who constantly criticizes your food choices.
It wasn't uncommon for my ex and I to fight in supermarket aisles. Grocery shopping, cooking, eating out — it was always potentially fraught with tension. But we didn't argue about the typical dining dilemmas, like where to go eat or who's turn it was to cook dinner. We fought because The Ex was a vegan, macrobiotic foodie who was quite vocal about other people's (and by that, I mean MY) food choices.
A guy who hasn't lived with roommates for 10 years moves in with his tidy girlfriend.
Following several years of barely-restrained, insouciant bachelorhood, I'm finally preparing my first move-in with a girlfriend. I've lived alone for years, roommate- and drama-free just as I like it. I haven't had a roommate since my sophomore year of college over 10 years ago, and the only beef either of us ever had with one another was when he woke up from a nap to find I killed his bag of Better Made Red Hot potato chips.
