Quote from: joshuatee on December 20, 2015, 08:54:48 AM

Quote from: Kiritsugu on December 20, 2015, 12:47:37 AM

Why do I need to legally bind myself

my best friends, a couple, and probably the only peeps id call friends, have been together since just after school. 20+ years by now, have two awesome daughters, never got married

the chick used to say: why should I marry just to get divorced?

Statistically speaking they would have had a 50-60% chance of staying together for life had they gotten married and only a 10% chance of staying together as an unmarried couple with children (and only 3% if the children reached 16 years of age!) so it was no mean feat staying together outside of marriage.
I know a couple who were cohabitating for 18 years and the woman spent over $100k in lawyers fees over custody of the children and division of assets when they split; I don't know how much her partner spent. The process of disentanglement was no less onerous or costly than it would be for a legally married couple.
Interestingly, 93% of couples who stay together are married before having their children.