sumanoskae said:
I get that, but if it's not about the paper, then why bother with the paper. What else separates weddings from, say, a(Considerably less expensive) party you throw with your friends or family to celebrate you and your significant other making a decision about commitment or children?.
What about marriage makes it so emotionality significant as to make up for the potential divorce hassle when the two of you get tired of each other because your relationship has nowhere else to go, or you become attracted to someone else?
I think you've got it backwards, what people want is the big elaborate party showing their love to the world and the piece of paper comes with that.
Marriage (and the paper that comes with it) existed long before expensive weddings involving expensive food, drink, clothing, etc. The problem with the idea of having a "decision about commitment" parties is that if they were adopted by a significant number of people they would wind up being as expensive and elaborate as weddings anyway, you can't invite 100 people to a party about one of the most significant decisions in your life and feed them crackers and cheese whiz.
Plus I think you'll find that simply living with someone for long enough will create divorce hassles. Legal ownership of certain assets becomes blurred and similar legal routes are open to sue each other endlessly thanks to that. A lot of divorces wind up about children too, that's probably the worst part, and those lawsuits can happen regardless of whether you're married. Plus I don't think many people think about it when they get married, considering it's a bond for life thing going on.
