Attention getter-
Your daughter of 26 is fast approaching the average age for marriage in the United States. One day she tells you that she and her boyfriend are thinking about living together, and she wants to know if you think this is a good idea. What do you say? What is the informed response? Background-
About a quarter of women move in with a romantic partner before the age of 20, and more women than ever live with a partner before they get married, according to a new report by the National Center for Health Statistics on usnews.com. Nearly half of women (48 percent) between the ages of 15 and 44 lived with a partner before getting married between the years of 2006 and 2010, an 11 percent jump since 2002 and a 41 percent jump since 1995. Less than a quarter of so-called "first unions"—meaning a first marriage or first cohabitation—were marriages during that span. In 2002, 30 percent of "first unions" were marriages. Specific Purpose Statement-
After listening to my presentation the class will know the three different benefits and three different issues about couples who move into together before marriage. 2. Benefits & Issues- Benefits-
Companionships: According to Cathie Robertson, a professor at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California (2013), one of the most common advantages of cohabitating is companionship. Living together allows you to relish the company of your partner after work, when you have free time, in the mornings when you wake up and at night before you go to bed. It also gives you an opportunity to see just how compatible you really are before you get married or make a serious commitment to one another. In a way, you could consider cohabitation a trial period before marriage. In some cases, it is important to live together before getting married because it gives you a chance to experience marriage in its truest form. In other words, you learn each other’s pet peeves, quirks, behaviors