8 Living together:

Living together without the benefit of a marriage ceremony has become popular among many people. Men usually like the “living together” arrangement. Why shouldn’t they? They have somebody to wash their clothes, cook their meals and provide sex when they want it –all with little or no responsibility on their part.
They can come and go as they please. When they want to leave permanently, there is nothing to keep them from doing so.
The arrangement is not quite as satisfactory to the woman. The most common complaint among live-in women is, “sometimes I get the feeling that I am being used.” It is no wonder that they get that feeling
When you ask a woman why they chose such an arrangement, the most frequent answer they give is that they are looking forward to getting married. But their hopes for marriage are often disappointed. The men usually reason, “why should I marry her when I am getting all the benefits of marriage without the responsibilities? Besides, I may want a change some day and it will be much easier this way”
That’s pure selfishness! Even if a woman manages to such a man to marry her, she won’t have much
The false idea that marriage thrives best when it is on a “come and go as you please” basics is expressed by the popular song entitled “gentle on my mind.” In this song, the man says that it was not the “ink-stained signatures on some old marriage certificate” that kept him coming to his lover’s home. It knew that he could leave anything he wanted to. It was his freedom to come and go as he pleased that kept her “gentle on his mind”
How foolish! And how selfish! He does not say anything about the woman and how she feels watching him come and go “as he pleases” and the song says nothing about who pays the bills in such a home, nor does it take into account the little children who may be born to such a relationship-children who would always e wondering, “where is Daddy? When is he coming home?”
A successful marriage and a happy home are based on unselfish love and commitment between husband and wife. You will never have such a home with the “come and go as you please” arrangement of living together.
How to avoid this pitfall: don’t accept a cheap, immoral “play marriages” wait for the real thing.