Eh, I just don't like you anymore, you gained a few... so it never happened...

[Fudgie]

Fair enough. I personally don't let my opinions dictate what I think the laws should be, but that's just me. My motto is "as long as it doesn't hurt anyone".

 

I'd MUCH rather someone get a "temp" marriage license and break up more easily than someone having to go through all that divorce with a formal one, tying up our court systems and wasting money.

Honestly, I think we would still hold marriage in high regard...we just won't do it until couples reach 2+ years. What's so bad about that? If you have a good relationship, it should be cake getting that far, and then by that time, people will see that you're serious.

 

I am still confused on how this "indirectly" affects you. Really, I'm very confused on why otherwise secure couples get very up-in-arms about what other people do with marriage and feel threatened if the sanctity is not preserved. How does this affect your relationship, again? Will you be more likely to fight, or divorce?

 

Or is this more of a matter of external appearances and you're concerned with other people not seeing your relationship in a certain light?

 

Personally, I'd like to get married someday, but I'd want to spend my life with that person regardless, marriage or not. If other people don't take it seriously, that doesn't mean that I don't, or my future husband won't. People will always bail from things. I think for a long time, many women have viewed marriage as an extra "security" in their relationship, to make it harder for the partner to leave. So, in that light, any change that would make it easier for an unhappy partner to check out of a marriage would be seen as a threat.

[petite]

I think it would hurt people. We have enough single parents and parent-less children that getting married on a 2yr contract would just make for more children, more single parents and marriage would be respected less than it already is (which isn't much sadly).

 

As I said above, indirectly it affects all of us. It might not affect my marriage, but it affects the way marriage is perceived and the way married people are perceived, as a whole - it isn't about me, it's about the way society views certain things.

I view marriage a little differently (not superior) then boyfriend/girlfriend relationships. I'd personally never stay in a relationship 5+ years without marriage, nor would I choose to have a child with a boyfriend - my personal stance.

If a partner wants to exit a marriage they can, but people leave for rather mundane reasons and these people are the ones that would probably opt for 2 year marriage license, there will be less respect for marriage if it's a brief contract.

[OptomisticGirl]

Marriage has always been a contract, I'm glad that some people are being more open about it.

 

"easy outs" are necessary to protect people from themselves. It's the same reason we have seat belts, the morning-after pill, no-fault divorce...you want to encourage responsibility, but there will always be situations where people make mistakes. It's better to acknowledge that and try to deal with it than to just ignore it and say "Everybody be perfect, and everything will be okay!"

 

Also, I couldn't care less about statistics. I care that over fifty percent of real live marriages are failing. When something that unnecessary is also risky, well...

 

And I'm sure if someone actualy did proper research, that 50% would be cut down drastically to show the reason why marriages failed. A marriage ending over a abusive spouse is very different to a marriage ending because someone cheated....

[Elaine Marley]

I think that if people who are not ready for the Big Commitment just shouldn't get married. Maybe we should stop pressuring people who aren't married to get married rather than coming up with this ridiculous idea. I don't think this would solve anything because the biggest pain and trouble with divorce is with child custody and child support issues and this renewable contract will not solve that problem. Where I live if you don't have children and have lived together for less than 10 years (I think it is), it's very easy to get divorced. And what if you want out before the contract is up? You're going to have to get a divorce. It would suck waiting around for two years for the thing to expire.

[Blue Spiral]

And I'm sure if someone actualy did proper research, that 50% would be cut down drastically to show the reason why marriages failed. A marriage ending over a abusive spouse is very different to a marriage ending because someone cheated....

 

If over 50% of car rides ended in crashes, I wouldn't really care what the cause was, as driving would be dangerous regardless.

 

That said, I agree that some marriages end for necessary reasons, as opposed to "unnecessary" situations like cheating. But if you add up all the "unnecessary divorces" and the people who stay in unhappy marriages, it's still well over 50%, IMHO.