Cohabitation Or Marriage?

Should you have children outside marriage or after marriage? Isn’t having children a commitment in itself?

Apparently not, according to statistics released by the Marriage Foundation founded by Former High Court judge Sir Paul Coleridge.

What Do The Stats Say?

Research conducted by conservative think tank the Marriage Foundation analysed data from 40,000 households in the UK. This indicated that as many as 77 per cent of the couples surveyed who had children after they got married were still together. This was significantly higher than the 44 per cent of couples still together who had children before tying the knot.

What’s The Bottom Line?

Although it is a positive step that “the social shame of having children outside marriage” has been effectively eliminated, there is still value in “cystallising commitment before starting a family”, he claimed.

What’s The Way Forward?

In response to this study, he said the belief that cohabitation is as stable as marriage “should be eradicated by clear public statements and education”. Whichever party is in government following May’s general election should “tackle the worrying rise in family instability in the UK”, he added.

Whatever your views, the full article on Marilyn Stowe’s blog, a top UK divorce lawyer, makes for interesting reading…

#love #and #marriage #go #together #like #a #horse #and #carriage