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Kids before marriage

I never understood why people think that marriage is more of a commitment than having kids together.
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robertsnj · 56-60, M
@Milk4fun i would agree with you that having kids is more of a committment than marriage.

On paper in conversations I think most people would either dodge the question (like the first two posters on this thread ) or agree with you but the data doesn't lie. In the USA (i just picked my country but may vary by country) nearly 40 percent of children were born out of wedlock showing a pattern that having kids together does not equal committment (see footnote 1)

Even Brookings did a dive into it despite typically shying away from familly value analysis took a crack at it. (footnote 2) their explaination of less "shotgun marriage" is interesting

Divorce rates in the USA have declined. ( footnotes 3 and 4)

I would be curious on how much the divorce rates dropped do to financial situations.

I would love to see polls and case studies on why these trends exist but in (at least my country) that topic is so taboo getting anyone to engage the topic with integrity or even more interesting explain be the partner in a birth but not a marriage is really interesting as a cultural topic.

footnote 1
https://www.statista.com/statistics/276025/us-percentage-of-births-to-unmarried-women/#:~:text=As%20of%202022%2C%20the%20percentage,States%20from%201980%20to%202022.

footnote 2
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/an-analysis-of-out-of-wedlock-births-in-the-united-states/

footnote 3
https://www.statista.com/statistics/195955/divorce-rate-in-the-united-states-since-1990/

footnote 4
https://www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resources/data/family-profiles/loo-divorce-rate-US-geographic-variation-2022-fp-23-24.html#:~:text=U.S.%20Adjusted%20Divorce%20Rate%2C%202022&text=After%20reaching%20a%2040%2Dyear,divorces%20per%201%2C000%20married%20women.