Living Together Before Marriage?

[DianeW]

My Husband And I Have Been Happily Married For 22 Years, We Have A Daughter Who Is 21, And We Lived Together For About 1 Year Before We Were Married.

We Had Bought Our First House And Only Decided To Get Married When We Decided To Have Our Daughter. Though We Knew We Would Get Married Some Day....

I Think It Is A Very Personal Decision, But I Am Glad We Did It This Way, And Would Be Happy If My Daughter Were To Live With Someone Before Making Thatfinal Commitment Of Marriage - Which To Me Is For Ever...

[Lissa]

Originally Posted by highlans

So another question to this is what about sex before marriage?

I'm against it. I think that's an intimacy that should be shared only in marriage. I know people my age are in shock that someone wouldn't sleep with their boyfriend. But I don't think that people take it as seriously as they should. Just look at the pregnancy rates in schools today. A recent graduating class of a high school in my area graduated 64 people, 37 of then girls, and 26 of them pregnant or mothers. There were even pregnant girls in my junior high school.

I know that there are all kinds of bc out today, but the only fool-proof way to prevent pregnancy is hysterecomy, vasectomy, or just to not do it. I know for one that I'm definately not ready to have kids, and many of the people I know that have children aren't mature enough to be parents.

I know being married doesn't necessarily make you mature, but there has to be a certain level of maturity that you obtain within the bonds of marriage because you learn how to share your life with another person and to take another person's needs into consideration. That can somewhat prepare you for having kids.

Of course there's also my religious beliefs that simply state that you do not sleep together before you're married.