A Perspective on Playing House

The ‘Perils of Playing House’ is an article that is designed to point out to the reader all the pitfalls of couples living together before they get married. It illustrates all of the possible unhappy endings to a relationship, as well as what happens to couples during the relationship as the couple lives together and begins to grow on one another. It also covers a lot of the reasons couples move in with each other before they get married, and who really pushes for the marriage; the man, the woman or the families. There are so many reasons that people move in together nowadays. Some couples do it to save money; one rent, and set of utility bills is cheaper than two. Some do it to see if they are compatible with each other and will be able to make a go of it in the long run. Knowing what a person likes and dislikes, is one thing; living with those same likes and dislikes is another thing entirely. You may think it’s kind of cute that your significant other puts their right sock in the top right drawer and left sock in the top left drawer until you have to live with that. You may find little things like that completely unbearable once you have to live with them. Sometimes, they move in with each other because she got pregnant and it’s the “right” thing to do, whether they want to or not. Generally moving in for the sake of an unborn child is not a good idea if that is the only reason a couple is going to move in together, just like staying together for “the sake of the children” is not a good idea. If a couple is unhappy together, staying together to raise a child in an unhappy household is not going to raise a very healthy child. Eventually after time spent living together a family member or close friend will mention marriage, or mention friends that are married and drop hints about how long a couple has been living together and isn’t it about time to get married, or celebrate an anniversary of some type. From one perspective that clearly identifies the

References: Wartik, N. (2005). The Perils of Playing House. Psychology Today, Vol. 38, pg. 42-52. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com