Ten Reasons To Get Married Without Falling In Love

Marriage is a social partnership, not a Jane Austen novel.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Before the bitter comments tear down this piece, let me say that I — like most people who chose to wed young — married for love. I can’t imagine myself without my husband, darling, light of my life, etc. because I love talking to him, I feel completely safe with him, and we have built an interwoven tapestry of a life together.

But also, if I’m being honest, it’s because I don’t want to handle my own taxes.

While I did get married for love, I didn’t stay married for love. This is not because my husband and I have been through a torrid season of separation, but because while we have stayed in love, we would not have been able to stay together if we weren’t also similar people possessing similar sensibilities and desires in life and having the strength and smarts to work out some thorny situations we were both thrust in. Basically, we wouldn’t have stayed married if we hadn’t gotten married and been the sort of people who did.

Practicality. Bureaucratic necessity. The real world. These are three things that will rear their ugly unromantic heads into even the most beautiful of relationships.

And historically speaking, marriage was about these things. What’s wrong with that? Finding someone you can live with is far more important than finding someone you don’t want to live without. I think the world would be a much better place if more people realized that and coupled up accordingly.

Here are ten of my strongest reasons on why I think people should get married that have nothing to do with falling in love:

1. Households are difficult to manage with one person.

I do not know how people cook, clean, manage all their finances, and wait for an hour on hold with Comcast all on their own. It’s just too much. Do you never take a break? Are you one of those people with an actual nine-to-five job? I may never know, but I do know that I could never. When I lived alone, there was spoiled rice in my fridge for three months and my dad handled everything from my car to my bank account.