Cohabitaion

I was thinking about cohabitation between couples and I am somewhat surprised of the low success rates of couples who live together. I actually am in a cohabitation relationship and have been now for about 3 years. I hope that the fate of my relationship will not end just as statistics have stated. Is my relationship doomed? If I were to believe that I feel that I would already be giving up on my relationship so I honestly refuse to believe that. I actually think that living together with my boyfriend has actually made our relationship stronger. We know each other in ways now that we would never have gotten to know if didn’t live together. I can deal with all his bad habits and he could deal with mine. Sometimes when couples marry and they have never lived together, small things like that can tear them apart. Our relationship is very strong and we have gone through a lot together that have tested our bond to each other and has only made it stronger. At this point in our relationship I feel like we are married, we just don’t have the paper stating so. We do get the pressure to get married from all angles by our families but we refuse to do so under that pressure. My boyfriend’s father is a pastor and he doesn’t agree with our cohabitation decision. He is always pressuring us to just get married so that we could be ‘out of sin’. With the whole marriage movement video we watched in class I feel, now more than ever to not get married. I feel like the pressure of the people around you should not control or dictate if you should get married or not. I feel that when it’s right, it’s right. I don’t think the government or anyone for that matter should get involved in the personal affairs of others especially when it comes to the decision of marriage. I am not against the Healthy Marriage Initiative, but I feel that the government is dancing on the line of private matters and public matters regarding relationships. There should be programs to council marriages, but I feel they are in no position to make you feel like you need to be together with someone else just for the sake of others, for example children. I don’t think statistics should encourage anyone who is considering cohabitation to not do so. It should solely be based solely on how you feel about the other person. If you feel you are ready to do so then go ahead, if not then don’t. Maybe these statistics are a plot by the government to discourage cohabitation and instead encourage marriage. Who knows? -Jennifer