In Defence Of Marriage

I'd like to draw your attention to this article in Daily Mail:
Most family breakups involve unmarried parents

It provides data supporting the claims which have been made by various Christian organisations, namely, that cohabitation is one of the chief reasons for the breakdown of the modern family (no-fault divorce is another one). According to Daily Mail, unmarried parents are four times more likely to split up than those who have wed. 

The picture they used is clearly showing modern bias in portraying women as eternal victims (because we all know that only men can be verbally abusive), however, the article itself is very good. It contains a warning to those who are planning to cohabit: 

"We have an epidemic of family breakdown because so few people realise how badly the odds of  success are stacked against unmarried co-habitees.‘If you’re living together as unmarried parents, you’re four times more likely to split up than married parents."


The author of the article speculates further on what could be the reasons behind it:
‘It is frequently said that low income and poor education are the main reasons behind family breakdown. But, if anything, the average income and level in education has improved since the 1980s while family breakdown has doubled.

And then comes to a surprisingly correct answer:

 We haven'’t been getting poorer or less well-educated but we have become less willing to commit to our families.

The real issue is the lack of commitment. It's really that simple, cohabitation is not marriage, even though a lot of people try to persuade themselves and others otherwise. When you marry, you promise to have and to hold, for better for worse, till death do us part. When you cohabit, you normally don't make any promises, you just stay together as long as it suits both of you.

Even the government seems to be paying attention:

Last month, the Institute for  Fiscal Studies said it was wrong to suggest two years ago that  marriage had no bearing on whether or not couples break up.
The think-tank admitted that money, education and social factors do not explain family failure.
More than 2.5million lower-income married  couples are in line for a tax break of up to £200 a year.
But increasing evidence that being wed helps keeps families united is adding to pressure on David Cameron to do more.

If you want to raise your children in stable environment, the best thing you can do is to marry and to stay married.