MALA PATEL,
banker, USA
A lot of young couples may do these live-in relationships for financial reasons. If they’re in the same city and spending most of their non-working hours together anyways, makes sense to move in with their partners. Most who move in to live together before marriage have been in their relationship for a year or two at least, so moving in together allows them to adjust to each other. Out here in US there is no stigma attached to live-in relationships, but only conservative cultures like that of Indians in the USA cannot accept it. But a lot of parents of my generation are willing to listen to their children’s views on living together. Parents do have reservations, mostly because of what other people in their community may think. The fear is that if you live together and if you don’t marry within a reasonable time, a year or two, you may decide to break up, what then? Say if your daughter is 31 and in a live-in relationship, how does she start over, especially if the couple want children?
Nevertheless live-in relationships are very common in the US. Some Indian parents do put their food down and completely won’t accept it. For example, a friend wouldn’t allow her daughter to go in for a live-in relationship. She also put her foot down when her son wanted to live with his girlfriend! There are parents who insist their children marry.