- 20
- March
2013
How divorce makes a case for marriage
Imagine that you have been in a relationship with one person for several years. You have talked about marriage, but with the high rate of divorce in this country, you’ve decided that you don’t need it to have a healthy, loving relationship. Eventually you decide to buy a home together, and then you decide to have kids. Soon, however, problems start to arise. For whatever reason, you and your partner don’t see eye to eye any more. You want different things, and you can tell you are growing apart, so you decide to break up.
This scenario is increasingly common the U.S., and is one many California residents have likely experienced. What happens next, however, is where things get tricky. When a couple doesn’t get married, they do not get to divorce. And for some, the absence of a legal dissolution is very difficult to overcome.
Unmarried parents often end up having to dissolve their relationship alone. This means figuring out child custody, child support, alimony and asset division without a legal process. It shouldn’t be difficult for anyone to see how challenging this can be.
Although no one hopes for a divorce, married couples have the benefit of a legal process to help end their relationship. Once they come to an agreement on all aspects of their breakup, it becomes legal. If a spouse fails to uphold his or her end of the deal, courts can enforce it — a luxury unmarried couples may never get.
Today, more than ever, it seems that Americans are avoiding marriage, perhaps as a way of avoiding divorce. What these people may not realize, however, is that divorce is in fact one of the perks of marriage.
Source: New York Observer, "No Divorce Is the New Divorce: Moms and Dads Navigate Messy Breakups in Marriage-less World," Rose Surnow, March 19, 2013