Compare/Contrast Essay
Progressively more couples today are deciding to live together before saying “I do.” According to Wendy Manning, co-director of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, two-thirds of couples now live together before marriage, compared to one-half of couples 20 years ago (Mann). These couples are living together to get to know their partner, to save money on rent, and to ensure that they spend time together. Some of these cohabiting couples have intentions for marriage and then there are some who have no intentions of marriage. While a cohabiting relationship with no intentions for marriage can be successful, a relationship with intentions for marriage has a stronger chance of success because of the couples’ commitment and the way they treat each other.
Commitment plays a major role in a relationship. Having a commitment to someone means that, when required, you can be selfless enough to make your partner's needs more important than your own. Also, it’s doing whatever it takes to make the relationship work, like the difficult things; taking care of your partner when they are sick, even at 3Am. Commitment in a cohabiting relationship with no intentions of marriage is however, not like this. Researchers believe cohabiting couples [with no intensions of marriage] have only an emotional bond and that their commitment to living together is based on whether or not they are happy in the relationship at the time (Cohabitation, no date). In contrast, the couples in a cohabiting relationship with intentions of marriage do, in fact, have a commitment to each other. By way of example, I cohabited before I was married. My husband and I made a commitment that we were eventually going to get married when we moved in together. We had long, open, and straightforward discussions about our future together and about the decision to get married.
The time that couples spend cohabiting differs whether it is
Commitment plays a major role in a relationship. Having a commitment to someone means that, when required, you can be selfless enough to make your partner's needs more important than your own. Also, it’s doing whatever it takes to make the relationship work, like the difficult things; taking care of your partner when they are sick, even at 3Am. Commitment in a cohabiting relationship with no intentions of marriage is however, not like this. Researchers believe cohabiting couples [with no intensions of marriage] have only an emotional bond and that their commitment to living together is based on whether or not they are happy in the relationship at the time (Cohabitation, no date). In contrast, the couples in a cohabiting relationship with intentions of marriage do, in fact, have a commitment to each other. By way of example, I cohabited before I was married. My husband and I made a commitment that we were eventually going to get married when we moved in together. We had long, open, and straightforward discussions about our future together and about the decision to get married.
The time that couples spend cohabiting differs whether it is