Living Together Unmarried

INTRODUCTION Love, flowers, food, music, stress, and happiness all combined into one day – a wedding day. While many people may fantasize about that perfect wedding day with the perfect dress or tux and a decadent cake, most aren’t ready to commit to what comes after. Some call it living in sin, others call it living in bliss, but these days it 's almost expected that a couple will live together without marriage. Cohabitation, once rare, is now the norm. Filipino family life has changed drastically as marriage is losing ground and more couples live together without tying the knot. Instead of using terms such as ‘husband and wife’ or even ‘spouse,’ businesses and advertisers speak of ‘partners’ and ‘companions’. Instead of getting married, couples talk about being together. Couples who live together without marriage are called ‘domestic partners’ - which may be people of the same or opposite sexes. A major social change has occurred during our lifetime like the acceptance of other changes in sexual and family values such as divorce, homosexuality, abortion, coed college dorms, coed gym classes, etc. But the reality is that living together without marriage can be great if both parties are truly aware of what they really want and actually stick to it, and that is a BIG IF. When it comes to this topic, there are so many opinions, facts, research, and statistics that either in favor of living together before marriage or choosing to wait until the knot is tied.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (DEVELOPMENT) Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among people in the Western world. “More than two-thirds of married couples say that they lived together before getting married. In 1994, there were 3.7 million cohabiting couples” (Wikipedia, n.d.). This is a far cry from a few decades ago. “Before 1970, cohabitation was illegal. Living together outside of marriage was uncommon, but by the late 1990s at least 50% to 60% of couples lived together premaritally. According to the