Living in Sin

Hello.

My grandmother, Belita, is a firm believer that a couple should not live together before marriage. I shouldn't even use the term "firm", she is hardcore. One time during a visit to her house I asked her, "What do you think about living with your fiance before marriage?" She quickly responded with this, "OH NO! YOU CANNOT DO DAT! What if you break up with dat one guy and den your next fiance know you do dat? Oh no." This got me thinking, is living with someone before marriage a mistake?

If you know me, you know I've never been close to marriage, not once. The longest relationship I've ever been in maybe lasted a year or a little over a year. I've never lived with a man or a boyfriend. I really have no desire to live with the opposite sex either. I think as long as a couple is engaged or just dating, they should have FREEDOM! You have your whole life to live with one person, live it up while you still can. Belita brought up another point during our "living in sin" discussion. She said to me, "If you live wit'd a boy before you married, why is he going to want to marry you?" Point for Belita. I mean why would a guy want to marry you when he can have his cake and eat it too?

My beautiful sister, Ashley, and I differ on this subject. Ashley is a few years older than me. She is not married either. Ashley thinks that you should live with someone before marriage so you can see how they live. This is not a bad point, but my argument is this: if you are engaged to the poor schmuck, don't you think by that point you should know how the guy lives? Can't you just spend the night a few nights a week to see how the dude lives? I think so.

The statics on this subject are quite interesting. Here are some I read:

• Just over 50% of first cohabiting couples ever get married.*



• Living together is considered to be more stressful than being married.* (F that).



• In the United States and in the UK, couples who live together are at a greater risk for divorce than non-cohabiting couples.*

I'm going to agree with Belita on this one. I will not be cohabiting before I get hitched.

Thank you, bye.
(*http://marriage.about.com/od/cohabitation/qt/cohabfacts.htm)