Another Reason to Avoid Marriage - for women anyway

A friend of mine sent me a link to an article, backed up by lots of data, stating that boyfriends do more housework them husbands. It also found that wives do more housework that girlfriends.

Interesting.
The article does indicate that in both married an cohabiting couples, women do more housework than men. It is just that in married households, wives do even more.

“Marriage as an institution seems to have a traditionalizing effect on couples—even couples who see men and women as equal,” said co-researcher Shannon Davis, a sociologist at George Mason University in Virginia.

Does this match your experience?

Do you think this is because before marriage men are trying harder to impress, and after marriage women are trying harder to maintain the relationship? Or is it just that people who get married, in general, are more traditional in the first place?

Deliberately Single

I hate to assume that just because someone is single that they want to get married. Judging from the e-Harmony commercials, obviously many many do. But not everybody.

I suppose the need to mate is an ancient urge designed to preserve the species. So there must be, on some level, a biological factor.

Then there is the societal factor instilled in the very young through the happily-ever-after endings that teaches that happiness begins with marriage.

I am not opposed to marriage, just to bad marriages. I know a lot of people in great marriages who give me hope. I also know a lot of unhappily married people. Marriage, in and of itself, cannot provide happiness.

So I've been wondering how many singles out there have never wanted to get married.

I understand coming to that place where it no longer holds an allure. I won't rule it out as a possiblity. I just see it as less and less likely.

But are there folks out there who, for whatever reason, were never drawn to marriage? I wonder how you skated around the push to marry.

It seems that once you can get over the idea of wanting to get married, you have a much better chance to be content and happy.

Without the Benefit of Marriage

My friend Peggy and I were talking about a phrase we heard our mothers use regarding people who were not married, but living together. They said the couple was living "without the benfit of marriage."

We wondered - what benefit?

We are single because of divorce. Our previous marriage experiences make us skeptical of the institution. I'm not sure if it is a venture I would undertake again in my life. There are a host of advantages to living single. My attitude toward marriage is more of a reflection on my experience.

But what if I had never been married?
What if I was single due to the death of a spouse whom I loved very much?

What has been your experience being a single person and how do you think it affects your attitude toward marriage?

For the stage of life you are in right now, which benefits you more: living single or getting married?