Not the Next Level You Dumb Girl With Dumb Parents

Cohabitation is a smack in the face . . . and for these reasons, explains the always good value Katrina Fernandez., writing on parents who pay for their children to live with their boy- or girlfriends. She works in real estate and

cannot even begin to count the number of bright young girls who’ve sat at this desk across from me dumbly smiling because they believe they’re taking their relationship to the “next level”. As a former dumb girl, their naivete I can excuse. The parents, on the other hand, should know better. Should expect better.

It isn’t the “next level,” she explains, and most come back a few months later wanting to get out of the lease.

And this crap I keep hearing that you can’t really know someone till you live with them first, like a trial marriage, is ludicrous. That needs to stop right now. Do you hear yourself? Why on earth would you entertain the idea of marriage with someone you don’t fully trust? You don’t really trust them now do you; or why else would you make living together before marriage, just to see how things go, a prerequisite. If a man asks you to move in with him the proper response is to be horrified and insulted. Parents too. Completely horrified and insulted.

Here, let me translate the term “shacking up” to you in man-speak . . .  “I like you well enough, but not quite well enough to marry. Not yet. In fact, I’m not really sure how I feel about you. I do know that I like you well enough to have sex with and for you to wash my stained underwear and pay half the bills, but not quite well enough to fully commit to you in marriage.”

While you’re reading this one, read the rest of her weblog, especially items like Can Parents Protect Their Children From Abusive Relationships and Stupid things people assume about my small Catholic family.