by Spider » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:51 am
I kinda think marriage averages out to a reduction in stability. It only adds stability in the less likely scenario where people are actually really compatible and willing to work for it. Marriage is a fantastic thing when it works, and I believe it has fantastic family benefits in those less likely situations. Mostly it doesn't work, though. We have to acknowledge that rather than stubbornly idealize the whole thing.
The vast bulk of the time the result of getting married is the relationship eventually death spirals and ends, leading to a divorce that is far more disruptive to everyone involved because of the social implications and legal entanglements than a simpler termination of a non-civil relationship. To say nothing of what it does to kids.
If there were no such thing as civil marriage, we'd be a lot better off, methinks. Then marriages could be a lot less damaging and a lot more flexible, allowing that majority of people who in fact made a mistake by entering into it a bit more latitude.
The majority of people we've known who have gotten marriead have been divorced within the first ten years. Its just been a giant mess for most of them, though there have a been a few amicable and relatively smooth splits. My sister in law has been divorced twice and she is 28.