Many couples live together before getting married today, since the taboos of the previous generations are not part of modern society at the beginning of the twentieth first century.
Is this attitude positive?
Usually it is, because the couple gets to know each other in the daily circumstances of life, and this way can evaluate a lot more than when they first meet each other just in order to go somewhere, like they do on weekends.
The real experiences of daily life, the various problems they have to solve together, all the unpleasant obligations that the maintenance of their house requires, and all the expenses they have to share will help them understand earlier if they are living with the right person or not.
In the past the couple would really be free only after marriage, and this is why many people were victim to terrible deceptions, exactly after finally getting married with the person they loved so much.
However, we cannot say that today's freedom is really helping couples live happily, even though the possibility of living together before marriage is certainly preventing many divorces.
The problem usually appears when the couple decides to get married, after living together for a long time, because a wedding attracts many relatives who may suddenly start interfering in the couple's life, especially when they have children.
When they live together without being married, nobody has any right to interfere in their lives; however, as soon as they accept the traditional social behavior, they open the doors for all kinds of interferences from their families.
This is very good for their children, but the couple many times starts feeling that they are being criticized and induced to act in ways that don't match with their personality when their relatives start showing them how a family "must be".
There are many couples that prefer to avoid this experience forever, and this is why they never get married and never have children.
As soon as they get together, their choice seems to be the best one. However, when another man or woman threatens their romance, stealing someone's partner, things are quite bitter for the person left alone without any rights, because they were not officially married.
Perhaps we should conclude that at a certain point the period of time of experimental life together has to end, and the couple must accept getting married. This seems to be the ideal solution, even though it cannot be applied to all cases. Everything depends on each one's personality and preferences.
