Jan 12 Cohabitation

Cohabitation is described in Berger (2008) text as not being formally married; however, you are living together. This seems to be a common practice nowadays and we are seeing it to be increasingly more popular among our generation. People seem to be cohabiting in order to avoid marriage, but still have the benefits. They may also be doing it because they can not get married, such as homosexual couples. Lastly, and what seems to be a very common practice is cohabitating before a while before marriage. Berger (2008) says that this does not necessarily mean that they couple will have a happier marriage though. I feel that I may cohabitate later in life because I can not see myself just getting married and starting to live together. I think that it is common to move in together after becoming engaged and planning the wedding together. I also think that this may help getting all the so called "bumps" out of your relationship before making a commitment to marriage. Living together I am told is very different than dating and I think that I would benefit from cohabitation in the future.

Berger, S. K. (2008). The Developing Person: Through the Life Span. New York, NY: Worth Publisher.